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Our founder, Ralph Borde, was born and raised in India. While he was very young, his father passed away, so his mother became the sole caretaker for Ralph and his brother. Single mothers have great difficulty in India, but because Ralph’s mom grew up as an orphan, she determined to keep her small family together.
Through his mother’s prayers and dependence upon God, Ralph’s early education was from some of the best schools in India. This enabled him to finish his undergraduate studies in India and go to the United States for graduate school, where he then began a career in corporate America.
While living and working in America, Ralph could not forget the harsh reality that millions of children in India live in broken communities and are only days away from horrific, lifelong bondage. One particular situation of a girl at risk of being enslaved revealed the need for an urgent response. As Ralph began to help, what he discovered was brokenness of epidemic proportions—the magnitude of need in the sheer number of women and children under various sorts of enslavement was overwhelming.
In 2006, Ralph left the corporate world and invested his heart and mind fully to this work. By 2007, As Our Own was formed as a U.S.-based nonprofit organization.
Today, by God's grace, Ralph provides vision and leadership to an international team working together for India’s vulnerable children. He also has the joy of traveling and sharing about the work, inspiring others to get involved in various ways.
It is one thing to care for orphans as orphans. But what if our care went beyond that . . . what if we cared for them as our own children?
This was the inspiration for our name, As Our Own. Our name encompasses our true vision and lifelong commitment to each child: to care for her as our own-for life.
To this end, we are committed to a three-pronged approach that shapes our daily work of rescuing vulnerable children, placing the rescued within our lifelong aftercare family, and preventing future high-risk situations by transforming communities for sustainable, long-term change.
Such a vision grows in conjunction with our support base. Your gifts keep children from this destructive, hopeless fate by offering new life, security, and belonging through strong communities that grow new patterns of hope.
Together, we can love vulnerable children as our own.
Ralph Borde, CEO
