ANAHEIM, Calif – “We have a good story to tell,” Nahla Kayali says as she sits in her office in the heart of Little Arabia. “No one is going to tell our story but us; even if they try, they won’t speak about us from the heart.”

And tell the story of Arabs and Muslims she has indeed.

Kayali is executive director and founder of ACCESS California Services, a community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the under-served Arab American and Muslim American communities.

“We are the only health and human services agency in California serving primarily the Arab and Muslim communities,” she says in an interview with IFN. “We are a family resource center and a center of information and services for the community.” 

In the early 90s, Kayali read about a state program that provided insurance for low-income children, and she decided to visit Judy Mader, the Healthy Families grant manager who managed the state’s funding local distribution.

Kayali received a $2,000 grant. While the community did not seem to believe in the need for social services, Kayali continued in her pursuit. She rented an office for $150.

“It had no desk and no window. I found a desk in the trash and used that,” she says. “The office was open two days a week for the community and closed the other three days so I could train and learn on how to serve the community.”

She registered with a nonprofit volunteer center and began networking and learning about grant writing.

Kayali handed out fliers at masjids, and in her first month, she signed up two clients for insurance.

In 1999, ACCESS started with approximately 500 clients. Over the years, tt grew from a $2,000 agency to a $700,000 and has reached 4,500 clients.

Kayali finds that the U.S. Arab and Muslim communities need to break down the barrier between themselves and mainstream society.

“If there’s a barrier, it’s our fault, nobody else’s,” she says. 

She encourages Arab and Muslim Americans to attend public meetings and talk about their communities. 

“We need to work the system and encourage the community to work with the system,” she says. “They’re willing to work with us; they’re a friendly community and they like us.”