Our Story
The story of Maitri began when Ophir, our CEO, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 27. From someone who was young, independent and able, she quickly became more and more reliant on her husband and mother for support during treatments. As she was going through chemo, she became extremely well aware of how challenging it was for her to ask for help from her family and friends, who wanted nothing more than to support her.
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When she was finally able to overcome the emotional barrier, she found herself overwhelmed with trying to manage everything, coordinating people reaching out, dr. appointments, errands and other activities. This was tedious and time consuming, and more often than not physically and mentally challenging.
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After her seventh round of chemo, she came home exhausted and decided to take a long hot shower. Standing there, wrapped in a towel and dripping wet, she had an “A-Ha” moment and Maitri was born.
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Sanskrit for loving-kindness, Maitri is a new way to ask for help.
We know asking for and managing help is hard
More often than not situations of need come hand in hand with feelings of judgment or shame, fear of becoming a burden to others, or simply not knowing how to reach out, or what exactly to ask for when you’re struggling
We believe but it doesn’t need to be
We know being vulnerable and putting yourself out there is uncomfortable, but there’s something truly special about people coming together to support each other in times of need.
We want to change this narrative, and normalize asking for help, so friends, family, and even neighbors can step in and lend a hand
We decided to
make it easier
We use technology to facilitate more meaningful human interaction. Empowering individuals to turn their needs into actionable tasks, and engage their community to build a support system they can lean on
