Recently, UNICEF’s KePodChi podcast released their third episode featuring me along with experts in the field of child rights to discuss issues related to child protection in shelter homes and halfway houses.
I had the opportunity to talk about my own personal experience living in several shelter homes from an early age and the challenges that many children in Malaysia face. It was a great honour to be part of this podcast as it allowed me to represent a larger community that doesn’t often have their voices heard.
The podcast was recorded in November in UNICEF Malaysia’s office, the whole interview was only 40 minutes so I hope everyone gets a chance to listen to it (available on YouTube and Spotify). The main ideas we discussed were highlighting the challenges of care-leavers from Malaysia, addressing misconceptions about institutional care and adoption and most importantly, empowering young people to participate in policy and public discourse.
I was initially very nervous as I had never done something this long before, and the pressure of being recorded was actually more intense than talking live. If you watch the podcast you can actually see me being more hesitant at the start and slowly gaining confidence because of the wonderful people I was surrounded with and my hope that my message would inspire others.
I really think you should watch the podcast if you have time and maybe learn about causes that you can champion or are passionate about, and talk about them publicly.
Sean Z.
Year 11 Student