The people building Ora.

Why we build this

The loneliness no one saw.

After my grandfather passed away, my grandmother was very lonely. She carried it quietly, the way that generation does — and no one around her really understood what she was going through, or how she was feeling day to day. It was only later that I found out she had fallen into depression.

By then, so much had gone unspoken. I kept thinking: if someone had simply been there to listen, every day — and to gently tell us when she wasn't okay — things might have been different.

Ora is the thing I wish had existed for her. Something that keeps company when family can't, draws out what's really going on inside, and quietly raises a hand before it's too late. We build it for every elderly person carrying a silent loneliness — and for everyone who loves them.

— Asa