The statistics paint a bleak picture. More than 50 percent of these children are HIV positive. 100 percent have no family or home of their own. But there is a speck of hope on the horizon. It's the lady in the bright blue glasses, Dr. Jane Aronson, better known as The Orphan Doctor.

Dr. Aronson is a pediatrician who specializes in overseas adoptions by Americans, reportedly including Angelina Jolie (she declined comment). Aronson is also the founder of Worldwide Orphans Foundation, whose mission is to improve the lives of the children left behind.

Worldwide Orphans Foundation runs health clinics, schools and summer camps around the world for orphaned and vulnerable children. WWO is currently working in six countries–Ethiopia, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Serbia and, in the aftermath of the earthquake, Haiti.

The healing is both physical and emotional. To help the sickest children reach adulthood, WWO uses powerful tools including the drugs that have transformed HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic disease. For those who need emotional help, WWO uses a tool far more low tech yet still enormously effective: Granny love.

"Orphans are desperate for personal connections. Our Grannies form relationships with the children in the orphanage and help them to learn social skills so they will avoid developing attachment disorders later in life," Aronson explained.

"In Bulgaria, our Grannies are elderly, in their 60s and 70s, retired kindergarten teachers or nurses. We hire these local women to spend five hours a day, five days a week with our kids," said Aronson. "But in Haiti, where only three percent of the population lives to be over age 65, we will be working with women in their 30s and our program will be called the Young Grannies."

A sense of normalcy otherwise unknown to orphans is something WWO strives to provide through its summer camps, which typically serve children with HIV/AIDS. In some cases, WWO partners with Association of Hole In The Wall Camps, which was founded by Paul Newman.

"Orphans face stigma and discrimination. But when they are with other kids, singing songs and playing games, they can say, 'I'm a kid going to camp.' What could be more normal than that?" said Aronson.

This summer, five Maplewoodians will be volunteering in Ethiopia at Camp Addis. They are Brian Lerner, 16, whose sister, Amara, now 5, was adopted from Ethiopia, and Aronson's family, including her partner Diana Leo and their sons Ben, 10, who was adopted from Vietnam, and Des, 11, who was adopted from Ethiopia.

Aronson's earliest charges have grown up to become adults training as teachers, economists and police officers. WWO would like to nurture more of those success stories and is expanding programs for older orphans.

"The saving we do is long term," said Aronson. "We're working to get these children to a place where they can go on to have families of their own and to be good parents to their own children someday."

Aronson will be at Words Bookstore tonight at 7:30 p.m. reading from her book, WHAT EVERY CHILD NEEDS: Creating Lives of Meaning for the World's Most Vulnerable Citizens.

MapleGOOD is a blog that profiles our hometown heroes and their feats to better mankind. It's inspired by our neighbors' sense of selflessness and the good works that they carry out quietly all the time. If you know a MapleGOOD-doer whom you'd like to see profiled, drop us a line.