Flip-flopping options

Luis Pena

Usually 12-year-old girls are riding their bikes, playing with dolls

or watching Saturday morning cartoons.

This wasn’t the case for 38-year-old Costa Mesa resident Layla

Abdul.

She was kidnapped at 11 along with her 10-year-old brother. She

talks of being taken to a foreign country and forced into an arranged

marriage at age 12 to a man who was 25 years her senior.

Abdul and her husband eventually moved to Orange County and had

five children.

“I wanted to leave him but he always told me, ‘No,’ that he would

kill me or hurt me or take the kids away from me,” Abdul said.

At age 27, following a fight with her husband, she contacted

police, who gave her a pamphlet about Human Options, an organization

that helps battered women and their families.

That’s how her involvement with the organization began.

The group supported Abdul and the three of her children she could

take, and helped her get through a divorce.

“I found the strength and courage to leave my situation,” Abdul

said.

Abdul was offered a job with Human Options in 1996 and has been

with them ever since in a variety of roles.

She is a follow-up advocate, which involves paying visits to women

in a transitional housing program. She also answers hotline calls

from women seeking help. As the safety net coordinator, she finds

lodging when shelters are full and she helps bring women hot meals.

She also is multilingual and can translate Spanish and Arabic for

non-English speaking victims seeking help.

“My passion is to give back to the women and children,” Abdul

said.

She has helped close to 1,000 victims of domestic abuse, said

Vivian Clecak, executive director and founder of Human Options.

Abdul’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Clecak thought so highly of

her that she nominated Abdul for an Ambassador of Peace award in the

public service and social work category. The Violence Prevention and

Coalition of Orange County gives the award to leaders in the

community who are making a difference in preventing violence, said

Daria Waetjen, director of learning for the coalition.

“She can help other women or victim survivors understand how

difficult it is to start a new life,” Waetjen said.

Abdul will receive the award on June 4 at the Turnip Rose in Costa

Mesa.