Martha Tellez
Founding director
Martha is the lifeblood of I Have a Voice Orphans Choir. Her energy and passion to build confidence, develop joy and provide opportunities for self expression in children is nothing short of inspiring. Together with co-founder, Scott Forgey, a previous coach and mentor to her, they developed the idea to run choirs in Morelia, the major city of the Mexican state of Michoacan. This was back in February of 2017.
Now in her official role of Director and CEO, their idea has become not only a reality, but a platform for significant personal growth in a number of young people’s lives throughout the world.
When asked what does the organisation mean to her, her response was simple.
“‘It is my whole world’”
It is an opportunity to empower young people with the experience of joy, happiness, love and a sense of belonging. More importantly, most of the students experienced a difficult start to life and many have dysfunctional or disadvantaged backgrounds. The I Have a Voice Orphans Choir program not only provides a platform to express themselves but a program that helps build self-confidence and discipline that helps instil these values for life.
Martha’s professional experience working as an account administrator in Mexico and Australia, as well as being a native Spanish speaker has ensured the organisations success in both countries. She also participated in the entire curriculum of Landmark Worldwide, an international organisation that offers personal development in cutting edge methodologies and technologies programs. Her knowledge helps the pursuit of personal growth and self development and has ensured that the curriculum of I Have a Voice Orphans Choir is enhanced to have the most beneficial impact in the lives of young people.
Her favourite part of working in the I Have a Voice Orphans Choir team is continuing to grow and learn from all of those involved in the organisation. She gets to share her passion for music and has a fulfilling sense of contributing to help make the world a better place. Her skills and the gift she has created is helping to transform the planet.
Throughout the long journey, there have been many ‘bumps in the road’. Martha actually enjoys these as she knows the continual effort to move the program forward have helped the great degree of success the program has achieved to date.
“‘I feel so happy and unstoppable. Just to watch the little faces laughing, playing, singing and expressing themselves freely is incredible. I believe I have already achieved the start of my goal and know that there will be a lot more little ones joining us across the world in the future.’”
When asked about the future of the organisation, Martha described it like throwing stones in the sea of life. “Each stone creates a ripple which continually propagates outwards, growing exponentially”. The more children we have in our program, the more stones we are throwing into the sea of life. Martha wants this exponential growth of joy, happiness and a sense of belonging to continue out into the community and beyond. I Have a Voice Orphans Choir is doing its very best to help contribute to a better world. A more inclusive one. One that has respect for all of our brothers and sisters. Martha and her team started with one choir in Morelia, now there are 10 groups across two continents and over 300 children. She hopes to continue the growth and impact of the organisation by throwing more stones into the sea of life.