Your Team

Meet the Team

Emily Fair

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to be a person who would make a difference in the world. It has always been my life long ambition to be a helper!
As a child I've had this fantasy of joining the peace corps, and helping others around the world. Unfortunately, I became swept up in life and that's just where it stayed, a fantasy. However, that didn't stop me from trying to change the world around me.

Growing up, I'd occasionally accompany my mother to her places of work. A few times, I joined her at a child protective service agency. Through my mothers rough childhood (which helped drive her career path), and through the children being protected by the agency, I learned not every child has the same start in life; and some children have to deal through life with a weight some adults could not and will not ever have to hold. This helped to fuel my passion.

My mother also worked as an in home health care provider, seeing how much of a difference she made in the lives of the people she cared for really kick started my love of the field.
At eighteen I started a career caring for the "differently-abled" and elderly people. Through this I continued to feed my calling of helping others. However, I kept feeling like there was more I could be doing.
I have since started providing one-on-one ABA therapy for children and young adults with autism. This career path could not be more rewarding! Watching a child learn, overcome new or challenging tasks, and overall grow, gives me so much hope! Not only just for the child I'm working with at the time, but for the future of our planet.

I absolutely love the direction my life and career are going and I feel that now is the perfect time for me to give back and reach out to other communities across the globe. We have the ability to sponsor and provide the education every child craves and deserves, but we need YOUR HELP to do it. A small amount from you, can make a huge difference for the life of a child and an even bigger change to the future of OUR planet.

Lavonne McRoberts

My name is Lavonne McRoberts and I am very honored to be a part of the board for the nonprofit organization, Midzi.

Education is a key value that I hold with high reverence. Connecting people through education and technology and adhering to 21st Century learning Common Core Goals for education is essential for today's learners. I have my Bachelor of Science in Anthropology, but found my calling working with students with special needs in the Iowa and Wisconsin school districts. I am currently pursuing a Master's in Teaching degree with an emphasis in K-12 Cross Categorical Special Education. I have also worked with adults with special needs in therapeutic settings, where I met the founder of Midzi. Using adaptive equipment and technology is imperative for working with, not only people with special needs, but is also crucial for interacting with people of all ages and abilities.

I have two passions aside from education: Travelling and Music.

I have volunteered in assisting the building of schools for a non-profit organization "Global Builders" in Mawagala, Uganda.

I have also worked with children in Carhuaz, Peru in the Andean Highlands becoming aquainted with their curriculum and promoting healthy lifestyles.
I was a foreign exchange student in Zeischa, Germany in a Hochschule, expanding my world view and expanding my education. The excitement and willingness to learn and to pursue education was a common theme I had seen in all of my travels. Connecting those around the world can be made possible via technology.

Aside from education and travelling, I am heavily involved in music. I have my own band called "Lavonne & the Battlecats." I write my own music and have played with national acts such as Merle Haggard, Wanda Jackson, Nekromantix, and The Koffin Kats. I am involved with a Non-Profit organization, "Girls Rock! Des Moines" as a Curriculum Coordinator and Assistant Director. The objective is focusing on providing a creative, positive outlet for low socio-economic-status and at-risk girls, to be empowered through music.

I am excited to bring my expertise, experience, and educational background to Midzi.

Mary Tendayi Esquilin

I grew up in the landlocked country in sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe.
I went to excellent schools, such as the Harare Dominican Convent, and transferred to a regional boarding school during my freshman year in High School.
The education at both schools was excellent. We know that not all schools are created equal. Many rural schools and schools in less affluent towns, were not provided with the same teachers and tools as we were given as students.
During my school years the more privileged schools tended to be mixed-race and international, while the very poor schools were inadvertently for the local black population. That system still exists today.

I was fortunate (by God’s grace) to be introduced to an American couple, who provided a scholarship program for international students. They graciously chose to sponsor my undergraduate education even though we had only met through letters.
I moved to the United States. My sponsors embraced me as a whole person… and made sure I had the tools necessary to study: these included housing, books, and board. Not everyone is fortunate to meet people who committed to helping students; I was very fortunate.
I now reside in the United States, but I do not forget the basis of my education.

More recently, a growing number of children in Zimbabwe are dropping out of school due to financial stresses, and government school teachers are sometimes not paid salaries for weeks or months at at time, due to a government economy that has difficulty paying its own civil servants.

As children fall out of school, or receive a limited education that still leaves them unemployed, the system is not positively self-sustaining, and this breeds seeds for social and economic instability.

With the advance of technology, and the proliferation of information, it is possible to make learning and education much easier than it has ever been before. Not only in places like Zimbabwe, but virtually everywhere on the globe. Teachers continue to be the back-bone of learning, including online Learning, but having a source of resource information available, allows students who want to learn practical life-changing skills, the opportunity to learn.

We will never cease to need teachers. It takes an educator to construct viable information, that someone (a student) can understand and use.

With online Learning, students have the benefits of learning from teachers all over the world, but also their on-site school teachers. In addition, teachers are able to use educational tools available online to teach and better equip students.
My teachers and sponsors changed my life and world. And I want ordinary people like me (and you) to have the opportunities to be sponsors too… and change the lives of children and students all over the world.

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