Mixit is all about people. Meet our Alumni, our Youth Leaders and the support team that have made Mixit what it is today.
Mixit has a dynamic Youth Leadership programme. This programme offers motivated individuals an opportunity to step up into roles where they face new challenges and opportunities to grow their skills.
Youth Leaders take on organisational and planning responsibilities, gain experience of creative facilitation skills, manage the digital media aspects of the project, have the opportunity and support to initiate events and projects that inspire them. The youth leaders are an integral and dynamic team within Mixit and work hard together to make a difference.
Arezo Nazari
Youth Leader
As a newcomer to New Zealand, Arezo was invited to end-of-year picnic in 2021 from other organisation, where she first encountered Mixit. Subsequently, she joined the summer project – “VOICES” in 2022. Originally from Afghanistan, Arezo initially struggled with homesickness and isolation. However, her time at Mixit proved transformative, allowing ...
Shahram Qasimi
Youth Leader
Shahram’s journey with Mixit began at our Auckland outreach workshop in July 2022. Coming from Afghanistan and fresh to New Zealand with no friends and minimal English, he found support and joy in the session. This positive experience nudged him to dive and commit into the core program, seeking to navigate this new NZ culture. Mixit swiftly became ...
Sajal Taneja
Youth Leader Coordinator
Sajal joined Mixit in 2019 through a family friend and became a Junior Youth Leader within a year. Since then, Sajal has consistently displayed commitment to our mission and has become an integral part of our community. Now, as a Youth Leader Coordinator, he helps in training and guiding the upcoming Youth Leaders. Originally from India, Sajal valu...
Team
Kaviesha Abeysinghe-Perera
Outreach Leader
Kaviesha discovered Mixit in 2012 through an article in the Western Leader. After participating in the "Cross Roads" summer project in 2013, she became a Youth Leader, later progressing to join Mixit's Alumni team and eventually serving as a trustee on the board. Originally from Sri Lanka, she completed her education in NZ with a Bachelor of Scienc...
Ekta Gyawali
Operations Leader
Ekta became a part of Mixit in 2022 during the challenging aftermath of COVID, stepping into the newly created position of Operations Leader. Drawing from her own experiences as a migrant in Aotearoa, she holds a passion for empowering young people and finds fulfilment in her role at Mixit, viewing it as an opportunity for both personal and profess...
Wendy Preston MNZM
Creative Producer/Director
Wendy has over 40 years of professional involvement as a choreographer, director, tutor, performer and artistic producer/manager. She has worked extensively with young people on performance projects throughout her career, focusing on cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary creative interaction. Wendy has collaborated with leading practitioners across...
Board members
Susan Davis
Trustee
Susan has a background teaching and engaging with visual arts and poetry initiatives. As a trustee she brings a set of skills that connects the space between Board and Management and flows through to direct mentoring of the Mixit participants. Susan hosts our annual Youth Leaders retreats on her rural property in Northland and is a deeply committed...
Fardowsa Mohamed
Trustee
As a teenager Fardowsa was a Mixit participant, then Youth Leader before she left Auckland to take on medical studies. She’s now a medical doctor working for Auckland Hospital with an interest in surgery. Around her busy professional life she is a respected poet, and continues to train in martial arts, she currently has a red belt in Kung Fu. Fardo...
Amavi Mey
Trustee
Amavi is the Communities Engagement Manager at Fonterra and enjoys being in a role that connects the business world to communities. She’s also been a school teacher and thrives in situations that are about supporting growth, including being on the Board for May Road School and a volunteer for Springboard Trust. Amavi is a Cambodian NZer from a fami...
Alumni squad
Mixit Youth Leaders graduate into our Alumni team. The team actively engage on many levels – as Ambassadors, on the Board, mentoring youth, performing for external events, creating music (check out our videos) and participating in continued training to creatively lead and manage outreach opportunities.
Younis Ahmat Abdallah
Alumni squad
Younis Ahmat Abdallah enrolled in our Youth Leadership initiative in 2018 and progressed to become a member of the Alumni Squad by the end of 2020. Following his completion of an apprenticeship in building, he now works as a builder and has founded his own company. Alongside his professional endeavors, he remains engaged in creative pursuits throug...
Oscar Arnold
Alumni squad
Oscar, who joined Mixit in 2012 as a Mixer, later became a Youth Leader and Alumni, forming lasting friendships and finding creative inspiration. He is graduate in BSC in environmental studies with a minor in Māori studies, earning a scholarship for his research on cross-cultural groundwater management. Professionally, he transitioned from hotel wo...
Ray Santiago
Alumni squad
Ray joined Mixit in 2020 as a creative intern during the "In a Curious Garden" summer project while completing his final year at university. Since then, he's become an integral part of the Alumni squad, facilitating Mixit-style sessions nationwide and engaging in youth-related activities. Originally from Philippines, he was drawn to Mixit's heartfe...
Selected Guest Artists
Sarah-Jane Blake: Visual Installation & Designer
Malia Johnston: Choreographer & Director
Yair Katz: Musician
Tawanda Manyimo: Theatre Director & Performer
Julia Deans: Musician
Bethan Marshall: Artist/ Muralist
Ahi Kahrunahran: Theatre Director
Ella Becroft: Photographer & Graphic Designer
Megan Bardsley: Graphic Designer
Felix Becroft: Performer & Musician
Katy Dugdale: Visual Artist
Bianca Hyslop: Choreographer & Performer
Paulo Rotondo: Director & Writer
Miriama McDowell: Theatre Director
Gino October: Musician
Justin Haiu: Choreographer & Performer
Mike & Bronwyn Baker: Ariel Acrobats & Circus Tutors
Eddie Elliott: Choreographer & Performer
Moss Patterson: Choreographer
Ooshcon Massuers: Choreographer
Andi Crowne: Photographer
Matilde Polard: Visual Artist
Andrew Cesan: Choreographer
Claire Talbot: Garden Designer
Elijah Kennar: Choreographer & Performer
Bert Van Dijk: Theatre Director & Performer
Gemma-Jayde Naidoo: Choreographer
Katy Burton: Choreographer & Performer
Eve Gordon & Dust Palace: Performers & Aerial Acrobats
Don McGlashan: Composer & Musician
Chris O’Connor: Composer & Musician
Daniel Ortiz Rodreiguez: Composer & Musician
Gaby Thomas: Choreographer & Performer
Katy Parker: Visual Theatre Artist
Maisy Conway: Garden Designer
Alexander Holloway: Stage Combat
Ben Crowder: Actor
Jahra Wasasala: Multi-Disciplinary Artist
Tama Jarman: Theatre Director & Performer
Helen Todd: Lighting Designer
Tahi-Mapp Borren: Guest Artist
Ilai Amar: Film maker
Ebon Grayman: Performer & Aerial Acrobat
Mel Bailey aka Kloos: Performer & Musician
Margaret-Mary Hollins: Theatre Director & Performer
Emily Carter & Natalie Keane: Costume Stylists
Chris Jannides: Choreographer & Director
Muhammad Ali Kanwal: Musician & Performer
Sparrow Phillips: Artist Chris Graham: Theatre Director & Performer
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One Percent Collective is an amazing charity that connects people who want to give back and do good things in the community with great charities around NZ. Mixit is one of the select charities One Percent Collective thinks NZ'ers should know about. One Percent take NO percentage of the donor’s contribution, instead donating 100% to their charities.
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