Our Staff

Thyera Arian

Founder and Director

Thyera, founder of our Tashirat Orphange and Ashatya Learning Center, was born in 1956, in Johannesburg, South Africa where she resided for the first 28 years of her life. She received her B.A. in Social Anthropology, Zulu and Psychology, with a post-graduate degree in Education. She acquired a wide variety of teaching experience in South Africa with the different sectors of the population and in numerous diverse teaching areas such as: literacy programs with the native Africans; Special Education with emotionally disturbed and disabled children; public school teaching; teaching the gifted; and directing a computer school for children. She emigrated to Los Angeles, USA in 1984, as she was strongly opposed to government policies such as apartheid in South Africa.

The same year that she emigrated, she qualified as a Yoga teacher, taking the Sivananda Teachers Training Course in Canada. She became a full-time Yoga teacher and rehabilitation therapist, before marrying and having her first child, Thyesha. When Thyesha was a toddler, Thyera opened a Yoga Center which was an immediate success in Mexico City. Three years later Thyera had her second child, Jonathan, and left the city due to his respiratory problems.

Shortly after, in 1994, she moved to Tepoztlan to open a Learning Center. Tashirat’s success has been thanks to all of the love and care that she has poured into Tashirat so intensively for so very many years. Thyera is a doctor of Naturopathy as well as a Cosmic Medicine doctor, which treats all five bodies (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and energetic) and very much takes into account the patient or student’s evolution. She lives in the Tashirat orphanage grounds with her daughter Thyesha, her son Jonathan, the Tashirat staff and Tashirat children.

Karly (Thyesha)

Director

Thyesha was born in 1987, in Los Angeles, California. She moved to Mexico with her parents when she was 2 years old. Since she was very young, Thyesha always led an independent life. She did home-based high school so she could have the freedom to pursue many other things at the same time, such as completing a Sivananda Yoga Teacher Certification at age 15 and joining a theatre group at 17. Upon graduation, she lived briefly in New York City, where she studied art. Thyesha found that the more she traveled and the more people that she met, her appreciation grew for the life philosophy that the Tashirat staff and community shares. At age 18, she returned to Tashirat as a full-time staff member and became a mother to her first Tashirat children. Thyesha received her certification in Naturopathy at age 20 and married the same year. In 2009, her biological son was born. She has now raised several generations of Tashirat children. Throughout the years, Thyesha has been trained by her mother and Tashirat founder, Thyera Arian, to direct Tashirat. Although Thyesha now directs and oversees all Tashirat areas, her main focus is spiritual and emotional body work and training with staff and children.

Jonathan

Jonathan was born in 1992, in Mexico City, Mexico. Jonathan is the son of Tashirat’s founder, Thyera Arian and Thyesha’s younger brother. Although Jonathan is not a staff member, his love for Tashirat and his expertise have made him an invaluable member of our team. While growing up in Tashirat, Jonathan was always a beloved older brother to our first generation of children and since then has become like an uncle to all following generations. At 16 years old, Jonathan completed high school and went on to earn his degree in Touristic Business Administration, graduating top of his class with honors. He then went on to earn a degree in Financial Administration. Jonathan supports Tashirat a fortune through all of his dedicated administrative work. It is thanks to him that we have been able to expand our team of paid employees, which has finally allowed our staff to focus on their own areas. He and the great team he’s made have taken over the care of our legal, financial, maintenance and much of our administrative work. He lives in Tashirat with his wife, Yael, and their family of 9 rescued dogs.

Bryony (Anathea)

Anathea was born in 1980 and grew up in the UK. Anathea grew up in and around Camphill Communities for adults with special needs and attended a Waldorf School as a child, developing in her a real appreciation for community living. After graduating from University with a major in Japanese, she began teaching English in France, Japan and Mexico. She arrived at Tashirat as a volunteer, then decided to stay for a year, which turned into 3. She left in 2010 for 2 years, during which time she completed her teacher training course in Integral Education at the Mirambika Free Progress School in Delhi, India. Her studies there gave her a greater understanding of life and helped her to realize that Tashirat was the place for her. Anathea returned to become a Tashirat staff member in 2012. She is a mom to her Tashirat children, a teacher and works in human resources and administration.

Esther (Kira)

Kira was born in 1978, and grew up in the countryside outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her artistic parents and Waldorf education filled her with a deep love of learning from young. However, at the age of 17, her passions were put on hold after she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and her health rapidly declined. She spent the next couple of years unsuccessfully attempting to find a cure, until she eventually became drawn to Yoga. While taking the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course in upstate New York, she was invited to Tashirat by Shyra, now a fellow staff member, after they met in the course. They planned to make a quick visit to Tashirat to practice teaching Yoga, followed by a trip to the beach. However, within days of arrival to the Tashirat Learning Center and meeting Thyera, Kira knew she just had to stay and learn as much as she possibly could. Over time, Kira became a staff member and successfully cured the disease which she’d once thought had ruined her life but actually led her to true purpose. She’s now a mother to her Tashirat children and works as a teacher, in human resources and educational administration.

Rosaura (Shenaya)

Shenaya was born in 1961, in Mexico City, Mexico. Shenaya met Tashirat’s founder, Thyera, in 1992, when a doctor recommended that she try Yoga. She became one of the Yoga teachers in Thyera’s Yoga Center in Mexico City. When Thyera left the city to live in Tepoztlan, Shenaya felt deep down that she would one day follow her. However, Shenaya stayed in the city, married, and then experienced the loss of her 3-month-old baby, who was born with Down’s Syndrome. Shenaya suffered from depression and chronic physical ailments for many years until 2009, when she finally decided to become a Tashirat student, and she learnt to heal herself. During her first few months in Tashirat, her ailments disappeared, and she found a greater purpose and fulfillment in her life. She decided to become a staff member shortly thereafter and is now a mother to Tashirat children, a teacher in our school and oversees the girl’s communal kitchen.

Chris (Arlan)

Chris attended New York University where he dual majored in Finance and Marketing and minored in Anthropology. Upon graduation, he knew that the “corporate world” was not for him and spent the next 10 years in New York City pursuing a career in music, as well as working in restaurants and real estate to pay the bills. He met Thyesha while he was still living in New York, an event that forever changed the direction of his life.  A few years later he moved down to Tashirat to be with her and they were married. Although Thyesha and Arlan are no longer married, they continue to be good friends and they work closely together in Tashirat. Arlan has seen his life make a complete 180 degree turn from playing music with his band in New York City to becoming a Tashirat staff member.  He is excited to work in an environment with such a deep level of consciousness, love and commitment, unlike anything he had ever known in his life.

Marisa (Shyra)

Shyra was born in 1979, in Los Angeles, California and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia. In 1999, she decided to attend the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training course in upstate New York. Eating healthy, practicing Yoga and meditation and living in an Ashram community was a radically new experience for her, but one that made her feel better than anything else she had ever done. After the course, she planned a visit to Tashirat to get some practice teaching Yoga in the Learning Center. Shyra decided to stay and become a Tashirat staff member for 8 years before returning to the US for 2 years, where she lived and worked in Los Angeles, California and traveled through the US and South America for 6 months. She returned in 2009, more convinced than ever that Tashirat was her home as it is where she had felt happiest and most fulfilled. She is currently a Tashirat teacher and helps in the homes.

Matthew (Zevron)

Zev was born in 1984, in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Zev grew up as a typical American boy until his life drastically changed in his early 20’s when he was introduced to veganism and spirituality. In 2013, after 7 years of working in health food stores, homesteading and permaculture, he arrived in Tashirat as an agricultural volunteer. He also gave classes to the children, putting to use his love of science and mathematics. While spending time with the kids, he started to feel really at home. In 2015, after returning to the United States, he decided that Tashirat was his true home and where he wanted to return as a staff member. Currently, Zevron is a parent to his Tashirat children and a teacher.

Melissa (Natainya)

Natainya was born in 1976, and grew up in Tiverton, Rhode Island. After finishing high school, Natainya traveled extensively through Mexico while learning to make artisanal jewelry. Everywhere she went, people captured her heart with their warmth, love and Mexican hospitality. After 2 years of traveling, Natainya decided to settle down in Tepoztlán, where she found Tashirat. From then on, her life took on a different direction. Tashirats’ teachings rang true to her and inspired her to transform her lifestyle. She attended Yoga classes and meditations and soon became one of Tashirat’s regular students. A few years after the birth of her biological son, she decided to join the Tashirat team. Natainya currently helps in the Tashirat homes and as a tutor in our school.