Anar Gulamali has served the Jamat with a smile for years since 1984. In her years of service, she has been appointed as Honorary Secretary of Golden Club, when three Jamatkhanas were represented under one Golden Club, and she served as Vice Coordinator for Principal Jamatkhana for 12 years.

Among her prized long service to others, is teaching English classes to senior citizens in Sugar Land Jamatkhana. Many seniors residing in the USA came with little or no secondary or tertiary education, creating an isolation barrier with other seniors within the community at large. 

To address this issue, Anar drew on her passion and inspiration for service to serve a unique gap identified within this aging group of the Jamat. She found the seniors struggled to successfully complete their citizenship interviews. So, she began working with them to teach them how to succeed not only in their citizenship interviews but also become contributing members through I-CERV. After identifying the need, she carefully articulated a citizenship curriculum and started offering classes to seniors at their local Jamatkhana.

In addition to her citizenship activities, she has been a driving force for the "Aging Gracefully" Initiative at Principal Jamatkhana.

Perhaps her greatest contribution is widening the vision of aging seniors through organization of local outreach trips, one such program was to local Rodeos exposing them to places they had never visited before while providing them with the opportunity to practice their English skills.

Through her engagement, she desires to ignite a spark of self-worth within aging seniors, as oftentimes they find themselves in misery or a state of despondency. She has encouraged many to join game activities, painting, floral arrangements.

Since COVID, immigration activities for citizenship were paused but recently Anar was honored by one of the participants for successful completion, an experience " which was truly humbling," said Anar.

“Making learning fun has been the most exciting part of the curriculum,” says Anar, “by providing them with subtle ways to learn hints and helpful words, which will remind them of states or capital."

During the year 2019, 26 students successfully became citizens through the program, and in 2020, 12 students.