With 28 years of experience in more than 20 countries, we co-design innovative and culturally relevant curriculum with local partners to meet their specific needs. Leveraging the power of play, we help children - and their caregivers - overcome trauma and develop the social-emotional skills they need to thrive.

Our Inception Story

In the early 1990s, our founder, Dr. Jane Aronson, a renowned pediatrician, and adoption medicine specialist, traveled to Eastern Europe while participating in medical missions. Dr. Aronson discovered children with profound developmental delays, attachment disorders learning disabilities, and severe failure to thrive.

Her response was to develop groundbreaking programming to eliminate these delays, and to create Worldwide Orphans Foundation in 1997. Since that time, Rise Alliance for Children (formerly WWO) has been dedicated to supporting underserved children living in vulnerable communities around the world, addressing their developmental, psycho-social, and educational needs, expanding our reach far beyond orphans.

Dr. Aronson’s pioneering educational programs, developed from the perspective of a scientist, and pediatrician, remain the foundation of our current programs. Over the last 28 years, Rise has served more than 225,000 children and caregivers and has teams in Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Haiti, Ukraine, the USA, Vietnam and in the Middle East. We remain dedicated to supporting the healing, education, and empowerment of children in vulnerable communities.