Time and distance never quite heal the pain of war and disruption. And neither do they soothe the longing to return.

Souad has been away from her beloved Lebanon for 20 years but both its joys and traumas are ever present. In this third episode in the mini series on Lebanon, she talks, - with  both bluntness and much humour - about her homeland. 

Here's the link to a map of Beirut  

https://www.worldmap1.com/map/beirut-map

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 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

Some people have poetry in their voice - whether they know it or not. Their words, and the  silence in-between, stop you in your tracks.  Which is what fine poetry does. 

Areej  has that gift. Whether she talks about teaching children, or coming home to her beloved city or her faith, there is always that moment when you have to pause and look at your world anew.

This is the second episode in this mini series on extraordinary ordinary people in Lebanon today.   

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 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

Lebanon Lives: the first of a mini series   featuring extraordinary, ordinary people in Lebanon - trying to live their lives while their towns, villages and cities are bombed around them. 

As host Stephen Barden says, " These people are us." or as Joan Baez put it, in her song, "There but for fortune - go you or I". 

Stephen's first guest in this series is Mona - half Ukrainian, half Palestinian, lover of extreme sports and in love with a profession she cannot pursue.

And here's the Instagram link to Mona's Extreme Sports team:

https://www.instagram.com/wolves.teamm?igsh=NjMwZTRicjJieDR3

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

Gaza Champions is a global community that may be solving two huge problems that plague traditional charities: how to make sure support stays long after the media circus has moved on. And how to get past donor fatigue. 

Stephen Barden talks to co-founders Anam Raheem and Matt Davis about how they helped put volunteers from across the world in touch with individual families in Gaza: a network of pen pals - or zoom pals. And the impact that has had - not just on the families in Gaza - but on the volunteers. 

Links referred to in episode:

Gaza Champions website: https://www.championgaza.xyz/

Gaza Champions instagram:https://www.instagram.com/p/DPMyhMaDt-v/

Mahmood fund-raising page:https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/gaza-champions

Anam Raheem's substack: https://substack.com/@anamraheem?r=2pc66t&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile

Anam's short story: https://www.wasafiri.org/content/tessellation-by-anam-raheem/

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Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

While the media focus on punishing - or protecting - the powerful men who consorted with Jeffrey Epstein, it has completely neglected to ask:  how can any man  traffic and exploit women and children in plain sight? And why is it that, despite the Epstein revelations, organizations combating trafficking and  protecting survivors  face more not less governmental delays and significant cuts in funding? 

In this episode Stephen Barden talks to Taina Bien Aimé, who has devoted herself to this cause for over three decades,  and heads an organization that punches way above it weight. 

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Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

With Gaza all but obliterated - do the memories and stories of Gazans lie under the rubble as well? If universities, cafes, homes, mosques, churches, hospitals, workplaces and even entire streets have been flattened, what happens to the memories that filled those places? Two organizations have designed ingenious projects to make sure  that Gaza voices do not disappear. Stephen Barden talks to Jo Friel and Lina Ayesh from Yalla Labs and Ahmad Jaafil from Waves to Home.

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Gaza Living Story:

https://yallalabs.org/resources/healing-through-storytelling-gaza-living-story

Waves to Gaza 

website: https://www.wavestohome.org/category/palestine/gaza/

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Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

This is the story of a 6 year old girl who was left to look after her younger brother and sister while her migrant parents worked every day and most of the night. 

This is the story of Mirujaa, eldest daughter of Sri Lankan refugees whose single minded goal was to succeed in their new country while paying back their families "back home".

This is the story of how the burden of the desperate and the dispossessed is passed onto the next generation. And how it is lifted.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

A sandstorm birth, a village donkey named Kajol, and a gun barrel to the head during the Khartoum Massacre—Ethar’s story pulls you straight into Sudan’s living history and insistently asks a hard question: 70 years of warfare has changed nothing, so where does real change begin? 

We open with a clear, human overview of Sudan’s long arc of coups, civil wars, Darfur’s horrors, and the power struggle between the SAF and RSF, then step into a home where a Ministry of Justice mother and a communist father model how to disagree politically while being totally aligned morally and ethically. That paradox becomes a compass as Ethar learns to push back—against assumptions, about her religion, her beliefs, her capabilities and her country. 

As Ethar, reminds us, the wars in Sudan were never for the people - but for power. And her stories in this episode have people at their core - her family, her neighbour who rescued her from a mob, her friend who saved her life. And Ethar herself, who insists that change only comes when ordinary people's daily lives are tangibly changed for the better. Village by village, town by town, person by person.

Please help support the show: by sharing with your network; by making a small contribution and by sending us feedback. 

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

 Stephen Barden talks to Ruchira Gupta, lifelong activist against human trafficking - especially the trafficking of women. This extraordinary woman not only founded a global organization to protect and educate sexually trafficked women and their daughters but, through her work with the United Nations, has driven changes in global laws on human trafficking and drawn up rules of behaviour for the peacekeepers themselves. 

In this episode we hear how she started on her campaign decades ago when she was covering a story in Nepal and discovered there were no girls in village after village. Her question "Where are all the girls", set her on a path that she's following to this day.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive. 

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

 You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors.
Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets.

That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard.

If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps keep these voices alive.