Creating & Sustaining A Safe, Healthy and Happy Environment for Children to Grow | Anna Sekulow

Anna Sekulow

Founder & Executive Director of One Life Movement

With an unwavering commitment to her vision, Anna Sekulow, Founder & Executive Director, One Life Movement, is a vision in herself. Remembering why each component of One Life Movement is crucial to the overall mission. Anna is determined to make a difference. Working with the team on the ground in Mumbai, Anna oversees the overall strategy from incorporating new workshops and programs to keeping things fresh and the children actively engaged is one of her key missions alongside adapting to new challenges as One Life Movement expands their operations to new places where needs might be different.

However, all was not easy for Anna. Her biggest obstacle has been turning a dream into a reality and not giving up on that dream. “Understanding that just because the dream may be coming true the work doesn’t stop. It’s about staying committed to the mission, working on it daily, and never losing sight of why you started.”

When Anna visited Mumbai for the first time and met with the children living in the slums, she began to feel an attachment to them. She did not want to see so many children left behind in the slums because of their economic situation and often unsafe home environment.

“I saw there was a clear need for help and I had a clear vision to do just that. So, after many meetings and lots of paperwork, I, along with the team on the ground in India developed the programs for the children and overall structure and decided to call it One Life Movement,” explains Anna. “The slogan “it only takes one person to change one life.” Once it was launched about ten years ago her dream of helping the kids and our vision started coming to fruition. I can see the difference we have made.” After about 10 years of hard work and dedication to One Life Movement, Anna found success in the smiles of the children and the hope they now have for a future outside the slums.

Supporting & Inspiring

One Life Movement’s Tailoring Center is designed to help local women gain economic independence. Anna decided to launch this center in the village of Salapali because girls from this village aren’t normally allowed to go outside the village. As a result, girls and women don’t pick up the skills needed to find a job or build a career and life. One Life Movement’s tailoring center provides women the option of making a living, which is an important step towards independence and empowerment. Their Tailoring Center is a place women feel accepted and valued – an unfamiliar but refreshing difference in many of their lives.

For this to happen, there first needs to be education. Anna believes in building a strong foundation for girls and starts at a young age. One Life Movement has 2 preschools; the first one was established in Bandara West, Mumbai and the second is in Navi Mumbai. As their Learning Centers grew in number, One Life Movement saw that many younger children struggled to keep up in first and second grades. They decided that they should be training these children well in advance so the One Life Movement could set them up for success and even help place them in better schools that would give them an education they would not have received otherwise. This training is paramount for the young girls to grow up to have the opportunity to become the great leaders of tomorrow.

Building the Future

Anna has been creating and sustaining a healthy and happy environment where children receive the one-on-one attention and resources needed to develop academically and reach their full creative potential. One Life Movement ensures that children in all their programs are provided with a clean and healthy learning environment. Their classrooms are brightly lit, very clean, very colorful. One Life Movement also provides age-appropriate games and toys along with their educational material. Qualified early childhood teachers have developed their curriculum. “During their time with us we instill good habits they often don’t pick up at home like proper hygiene. We pay close attention to the health of our students to make sure they are not lacking nutrition,” says Anna. Poor nutrition contributes to loss of developmental potential and lifelong health and economic disparities from children at the lowest economic strata of society. As a result, a very important component is One Life Movement’s Feeding Program, where they provide one meal a day to the children.

Anna’s goal is to create and sustain a healthy and happy environment where children receive the one-on-one attention and resources that they need to develop academically and reach their full creative potential.

At One Life Movement, education is the priority. They believe that with proper guidance, every child will have the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to build a strong foundation and ultimately, have a better life. They constantly encourage their students to dream big and envision a life outside the slums, while equipping them with the tools that they need to fulfill those dreams.

The youngest students begin their education at One Life Movement’s Preschool at the age of 3. As the students grow older, they graduate into their Learning Center, where the institute provides tuition classes to assist students in their quest for higher education. Students can avail One Life Movement’s Scholarship Program that will help assist academically motivated children to reach their potential.

“We believe in a multi-faceted, holistic development of a child and to fulfill this vision, we recently started the OLM Recreation Program where children can come and participate in sporting activities that will contribute to their overall growth.”

It is pertinent to mention One Life Movement’s leadership on the ground in India. Urvashi and Sanjay Solomon provide unparalleled leadership and commitment to One Life Movement. In 2006 they both gave up their careers to serve the poor and the marginalized section of society. They began with helping the children in a slum in Mumbai do their studies and in that they found their peace and joy. Ever since ‘Educate and Empower’ has been their mission mantra. What started as a small math and english class serving twenty children slowly spread all over the city and is now serving more than 500 children in Mumbai and a few other states of India.

Both Sanjay and Urvashi are mentors to many and they are continually investing in young leaders who have a heart for the marginalized.

Feeding Program

In addition to One Life students in Mumbai, Anna and her team currently actively serve 138 children from the slum areas of Bamanwada, Andheri (East), Murugan Chawl, Santa Cruz (west). The purpose of the Feeding Program is to make sure that the children are fed during the daytime when they are on their left to fend for themselves. Each meal the children receive is carefully prepared in hygienic conditions to provide children with the proper nutrition they need in their formative years. The children are not only provided a nutritious, healthy meal; they are learning. “We use our program to teach them good habits like washing their hands before and after eating, how to properly eat their food, and similar basic manners. This is all in an effort to encourage cleanliness and proper hygiene which is crucial to the overall development of a child.”

Sports Zone

One Life Movement helps with many aspects of each child’s life from when they start to walk through high school age. While children’s education remains the top priority, the One Life Movement has developed more activities that help overall development. They have a Sports Zone, a recreational program designed to help children stay fit and improve their critical thinking and decision-making skills. The Sports Zone is also a great way for the children to be physically active, which improves their overall health and well-being. They also have their annual Joyful Noise Summer Camps where they can have fun and explore the world beyond the confines of the slums where they live.

Rebuilding Families

One Life Movement introduced the Drug & Alcohol rehabilitation program in May 2019. The staff

noticed a rise in household problems and most of them were caused by or compounded by fathers who were addicted to drugs, alcohol, and other controlled substances. Many family members of our Learning Center students told our teachers about their experiences or struggles with alcohol and drug addiction and how it has affected their family life. So, we took it upon ourselves to make a difference in our communities by assisting those who want to break free from the chains of addiction.

Anna believes that with the proper guidance and environment, every child will have the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to build a strong foundation and ultimately a better life. That is why the youngest students begin their education at One Life Movement’s Preschool at 3. As the students grow, they graduate into One Life Movement’s Learning Center where they provide classes to assist students in their quest for higher education. “Here students have the opportunity to use One Life Movement’s Scholarship program that will help place academically motivated children into reaching their full potential by sending them to school.”

Anna and her husband currently live in Nashville, TN with their three children.

"Since One Life Movement was established 10 years ago, Anna finds success in the smiles of the children who once had no hope, and the opportunity they now have for a future outside the slums."

Anna Sekulow

Founder & Executive Director of One Life Movement

onelifemovement.org