Meet Laila Risgallah Wahba | Working on Abolishing Sexual Abuse and Bullying, Author of “What Happens After #MeToo

We had the good fortune of connecting with Laila Risgallah Wahba and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Laila, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
What on earth am I here for? That is a question that has haunted me ever since I can remember. When young, I thought to become a physician and help heal people would be my why, but I finished medical school, became a pediatrician, and still felt empty.

True, I always loved my patients. I helped them not only medically but also emotionally and many times socially by getting out of my comfort zone. Many times I was criticized for not being very professional, for stepping over the boundary of professionalism by having empathy and love beyond what the medical field teaches.

Then, as my kids were growing, I felt the pain of adolescence, their struggles, their temptations, their difficulty to live the life that fulfills, and their peer pressure. I started a youth TV show: “We Will Live our Lives Well” tackling adolescent issues such as: Why not Sex Before Marriage, Why Not Pornography, Peer Pressure, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse. The viewing of the show was 40 million a week all over the Middle East, North Africa, and Arab speakers in the USA and Canada. I filmed 100 episodes.

I felt I was on a journey into the unknown , not having found my life passion yet. Then, I realized that many youths have a dark secret, a secret they have never shared with anyone, yet it affects their whole life; their behavior, their worldview, their relationships, their career, their future. This secret is so dark that they have unconsciously decided to either forget it, deny it ever existed, or act out from their pain. God has given me the blessing of attracting broken, hurting people. I have heard the same phrase so many times, “I don’t know why I am telling you this, I have never told this to anybody before, but I feel you will understand me.” This secret they keep is that sexual abuse touched them at some point in their lives. This is why they are on drugs, this is why they are on alcohol, this is why they can have no proper fulfilling relationships, this is why they feel they are not worthy of love, they live with guilt and shame and either hop from one relationship to another, whether with same or different sex, in search of their warped understanding of love. And some become entirely hostile to sex.

It was then that I found my life purpose: to bring healing to the abused and to prevent it from happening whenever I can. Being a pediatrician, I believe that prevention is better than a cure. I realized I knew nothing about sexual abuse and that medical school is lacking in teaching about this subject. When starting a challenging TV show about sexual abuse I decided I needed to equip myself with a bachelor of psychotherapy with a focus on antisexual abuse. With some research, I found out that one in every four girls and one in every six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. The stats mortified me. Only 10% of cases are reported because of the shame, guilt, and stigma connected with sexual abuse which means that 90% of cases go unreported. That statistic further horrified me.

We called the campaign NOT GUILTY since it is never the victim’s fault when sexual abuse happens. After raising funds, writing, and producing 23 episodes, no TV channel had the guts to air them because they would not attract any ads. It seems the media only wants the bang of #MeToo and Larry Nassar but is not genuinely interested in the welfare of those who have been abused or might be vulnerable to abuse.

In 2012, I started Not Guilty, a nonprofit with an aim to flood The Middle East with antisexual abuse materials, provide support, and deliver prevention services to children, parents, teachers and social workers, thus empowering parents and children.

What should our readers know about your business?
I have always been an agent of change. I see opportunities where others see problems, and I think of out-of-the-box solutions; it’s just how I am wired. But I am also very compassionate about others’ sufferings. I have been leading summer camps since I was 20 years old (and that’s a long time ago). I have a youth TV show called We Will Live Our Lives Well (Han3ishasa7) that has been running on TV since April 2007 until today. The show tackles all youth problems like: dating, why not sex before marriage (its consequences); why not porn and many other things. I filmed 100 episodes. Getting in touch with many youth, I realized that many of them have problems because they were sexually abused when they were young.
During one of the summer camps, a 19-year-old girl came to me- like many others- to tell me the secret she never told anyone: that she was sexually abused when she was young. The thing that bothered her was that she did not know if she was a virgin or not, which is a big deal in Egypt.
Not knowing anything about sexual abuse at the time- I took her to a gynecologist who said she was a virgin. But something bothered me. I felt this was not the end of the story.
I started doing some research and found out that one in every four girls and one in every six boys are sexually abused before they are 18 years old. I found out that only 10% of cases are reported.
In spite of being a pediatrician with a Ph.D. in childhood studies, I know nothing about sexual abuse. So, I felt unequipped to tackle this problem, which I felt called to abolish.
I went and studied a bachelor of psychotherapy with a focus on sexual abuse, and started Not Guilty for family Development to abolish sexual abuse in children aged 0-18 in Egypt and the Middle East and to raise a generation that refuses abuse and a generation that will not become abusers.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Downtown Duluth. The Aquarium
Gibbs Gardens

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shout out to my mother, who taught me compassion, and to my husband, Wahid, who believed in me when I was just starting to pursue my dream. I also want to give a shoutout to the Not Guilty team, who are working tirelessly to bring healing and hope to sexually abused survivors.

Website: www.notguiltyinc.org

Instagram: notguiltyinc_usa

Linkedin: Laila Risgallah Wahba

Twitter: @lailarisgallah

Facebook: Not Guilty USA

Image Credits
Not Guilty