ABOUT ASAH ASIH ASUH
Previously known as ReAct, Asah Asih Asuh is another brainchild of our CEO, Mr. Randolph Oudemans.
Randolph spent his high-school years in Jakarta and then returned there as a youth worker. After witnessing the hardships being faced by children growing up in Indonesia, he resolved to take action, to do something positive and to make a difference.
In early 2003, he took decisive steps to create a socio-humanitarian organization that would support this.
As he visited various child-care institutions, he was struck by the severe sense of abandonment, fear, lack of positive self-esteem and self-compassion that the children were experiencing. In those early days, while considering how he might be able to contribute to overcoming these challenges, he took his young son on a trip and asked him to share his ideas and perspectives (sometimes, children perceive things with a purity and clarity that adults don’t seem to be able to).
In this moment, his son looked at him and said, “Dad, so many of these children don’t seem to have parents/caregivers who truly care for them, and cuddle them, like you and mom do with us.” From this observation, his focus on caregiver training and empowerment was born.
This led to the birth of Asah Asih Asuh (then ReAct), a non-profit organization that aims to significantly raise the quality of care children receive - by training & empowering their caregivers.
Randolph and an orphanage child in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Over the course of the last 15 years, the organization’s programs have helped thousands of children claim their rights and fulfil their most basic needs – food, shelter, education, compassion and love. They have also trained and empowered hundreds of parents and caregivers, providing them with the skills and tools to better care for the children.
With time, their programs have become increasingly focused on mindfulness and emotional intelligence for the children as well as their caregivers. In recent years, this has become an area of key focus for Randolph and the organization.
A Cisco Meraki team leader with a group of orphanage children during a “Care and Fun” Positive Social Impact event in Seminyak, Indonesia.
In 2018, he founded Now.Here., a company committed to helping people be happy, flourish and contribute to a better world. Through this organization, Randolph helps people develop their innate capacities for compassion and happiness, and empowers them to improve their performance in work and life by training them in mindfulness-based programs and practices. Now.Here. allows him to combine his business experience with socio-humanitarian efforts to help people live fuller, more meaningful lives.
At the core of his philosophy is the belief that we all deserve a chance at happiness, contentment and joy. He offers this as the foundation of his work in this field.
To find out more about Asah Asih Asuh's work, kindly visit www.careinaction.asia.