For as long as she can remember, Layla Sheikh has been running.
She started when she was 4 years old in her homeland of Somalia, where as a child she was constantly fleeing for her life — from tribal gunmen, border guards, lions, boars and other wild animals.
Fast forward to today and Layla is now a tall, lean and spirited 27-year-old living and thriving here on Maui. She continues to run throughout the island, although nowadays she’s doing it on her own terms.
“As a child I would run for my life,” she remembers. “Now I use running to cope with the things that are going through me head — it has really helped me to find my way.”
What happened over the years and the path that has led her to Maui is a tale begging to be told. It’s a story marred with rape, starvation and genocide of unimaginable proportions … and hope.
“I’ve had a very tough life, but I am also very lucky to be here today,” says Layla. “I want people to know about what is happening in my homeland and hopefully be moved to do something about it.”
As a child Layla was responsible for walking the family cows several miles into the bush to feed — a chore that often kept her away from home until 3 a.m. Alone and defenseless, she was captured and raped “hundreds of times” by the time she was 11. Besides human threats, she constantly feared the deadly animals that lurked in the bush.
“The cobras could jump from tree to tree and their bites were very deadly. I feared them more than the lions because you wouldn’t see them until the last moment when it was already too late,” she says.
Things went from bad to worse when the Somali government collapsed in 1990, sending the region into civil war and forcing Layla and her family to flee on foot to neighboring Kenya. Layla knew she might not survive the crossing, but she had no choice.
“At that point we were just running away, running for our lives. There wasn’t even a refugee camp in existence yet for us to be fleeing toward … we were without a home, constantly on the move,” she says.
An enemy tribe chased Layla and her family, intent on killing anyone who wasn’t one of their own.
“We ran into the bush, chased by the tribe who was trying to kill us in their genocide campaign. Young women were taken and raped so that they would bear their children. Pregnant women had their fetuses cut from their wombs with machetes to illustrate their will and determination to end their rival tribe’s bloodline,” she explains.
Layla and her family lived in exile and constant fear for two years before arriving at a refugee camp in Kenya, where she was promised “safety, shelter and sustenance.”
“Those things were supplied,” says Layla. “But in a quantity that was just barely adequate to keep most of us alive.”
She decided to leave the refugee camp and travel to the capital city of Nairobi. She was alone and penniless in a foreign land, but her luck shifted when she met a woman who helped her file paperwork to gain refugee status with the U.N., leading to political asylum in America.
Layla’s American dream became a reality on Christmas Eve 1998, when she arrived at a refugee transitional center in Phoenix, Ariz. She was shocked to find that the place she considered a “dreamland” had problems of its own.
“We arrived at Phoenix at night … I was looking out the window and was astonished to see that some of the people on the street were wearing shoddy clothes, were unkempt and just didn’t look very well in general,” she recalls.
“I was told that they were homeless. When this concept was explained to me I was both frightened and appalled. If this could happen to the actual citizens in this, the richest of all nations, what lied in store for me?”
Within a week of arriving in America, she was raped by a fellow Somali refugee. Because of the experience she left the city and moved to Washington state.
“At this point, now in America, I had what most people would consider to be a very hard and unpleasant life. Because I experienced all of this at the hands of Africans, at this time I no longer wanted to have anything to do with people who had the same color skin that I had,” Layla explains.
She eventually learned to trust others, and began a relationship with a man who would later bring her to Maui.
“I know that not everyone’s bad and that there’s good people out there — that’s how I got here,” she says.
Layla has been on Maui now for nearly five years, although her memories of home still haunt her. She thinks about the family she left behind and wonders whether they are alive today.
“My main focus now is to help my family who is still going through pretty much the same thing I experienced,” she says.
Layla, who can be reached at is determined to raise enough money to bring her family to America — a dream that will cost thousands of dollars to make a reality. Still, she remains undeterred.
“I believe anything is doable, whatever you can think you can accomplish,” she says. “When you want something and you’re willing not to give up, you’ll find the solution.”

• Contact Lehia Apana at .