Today:
Prosthetic Clinics:
We now have three 3D printers making below knee prosthetic sockets in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, the need for prosthetics is immense, with an estimated 40,000 below knee amputees (men, women and children). It is also estimated that only about 600 new prosthetic devices were made in 2024 in all of Ukraine.
Our Mission partnered with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) – both based in Houston, Texas – over the past 24 months and opened a clinic for prosthetic 3D manufacture, fitting and rehabilitation at our partner hospital, Transcarpathian Regional Clinic Hospital (TRCH) in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. The other key partners are Invent Medical (Ostrava, Czech Republic) and Filaments Innovation (Allentown, Pennsylvania – now owned by Proteor, a French prosthetics company). TRCH has completely refurbished two areas to accommodate the prosthetic 3D printing and fitting, and with donations from Direct Aid (Austin, TX) [http://directaidforukraine.org/what-we-do], a modern rehabilitation gym.
In June 2024, our Mission purchased (>$40,000) and shipped a 3D “Icarus” printer from Pennsylvania to Invent Medical and they tested and fine-tuned their proprietary software for scanning limbs and proper fitting. Importantly, working with Mitsubishi and Filaments, improvements were made in the plastic filament material used to create the socket. Further, BCM selected Bulldog Tools (Ohio) to provide the internal and below socket parts: liner, hardware and foot. Our Mission for Ukraine has purchased and shipped to Ukraine most of this ancillary equipment. Our Mission also funded the training of TRCH’s technicians and rehabilitation staff at Invent Medical in the Czech Republic in September, 2024. In October 2024, we shipped the 3D printer from Ostrava to TRCH in Uzhhorod. In November 2024, the first below knee socket was made by our 3D printer at TRCH and fitted on a patient that day. That same month, our Mission hired a US volunteer, Smith Graham, to live in Uzhhorod to coordinate the efforts of the various stakeholders and be the hub of the information and decision flow. Smith left for school in Paris in June 2025. Also, in June 2025, after fitting 27 patients with the 3D socket prosthetics in Uzhhorod, BCM declared our pilot project a “success.” With this milestone achieved, Mission for Ukraine and Proteor began expansion plans for other clinics and hospitals in Ukraine.
Our 3D printers in Ukraine can produce a “socket” in two hours. Other 3D printers require around 18 to 24 hours. The entire process to scan, 3D print and fit a patient with a new prosthetic leg is about four hours; whereas, the traditional method, using plaster molds, can take several days. The total cost for a new prosthetic made by our 3D printer, with all the parts, is about $400 per patient, or a fraction of existing prosthetic methods, which cost between $8,000 to $15,000. The competitor 3D printer costs over $800,000. Proteor’s new “Icarus Lite” 3D printer costs $25,000 and is half the size and weight of the first “Icarus” printer we shipped to Ukraine in June 2024. This development will enable our Mission to purchase twice as many printers as before for use in Ukraine.
We purchased out first “Icarus Lite” printer in September 2025 and drove it across the border to Vinnytsia, Ukraine where it is now being used at a state prosthetics institution there. In October 2025, our Mission also signed an MOU with Proteor Printing Solutions (USA) to purchase four more “Icarus Lite” printers ($25k each) and, for each printer we buy, Proteor will donate $5,000 worth of supplies and equipment, provide one week of training for the clinicians on the “Icarus Lite” 3D printer and, importantly, give access to their highly specialized software to assist in the manufacture of the 3D products. Under the MOU, we purchased a Lite printer in December 2025 and donated it to “Unbroken,” a world class prosthetics clinic in Lviv (https://unbroken.org.ua). The results have been amazing and the patients much prefer the flexible sockets made with the Icarus Lite. Unbroken is also using 3D technology to make “assisted devices” for hand and arm amputees. Proteor and Unbroken plan to establish a Center of Excellence at Unbroken. Our Mission’s objective is to continue to expand 3D printing technology to other parts of Ukraine, including hospitals and clinics such as “Superhumans” in Lviv and university hospitals in Kyiv, Lviv and Ternopil.
The Military Hospital in Mukachevo, Ukraine (40 kms from Uzhhorod) is also using the TRCH clinic for prosthetic making and fitting. With some patients, they are scanned at the Military Hospital, the socket is printed in Uzhhorod and the TRCH team fits the new prosthetic leg at the Military Hospital. The veterans do not have to travel to receive a new leg and the hospital has a new, modern rehab facility.
Mukachevo Regional Pediatric Hospital. Mukachevo, Ukraine:
Our Mission has provided support for this hospital. In 2024, we funded the travel and accommodations for Dr. Yuriy Demyan, an orthopedic surgeon, to come to TCH in Houston to witness a significant operation on a patient of his, a three-year old Ukrainian boy. This surgical procedure (10 hours) was successful, and the young boy is now completely mobile with a new prosthetic leg. Dr. Demyan also spent considerable time over two weeks in the operating theaters at TCH and BCM observing dozens of pediatric orthopedic surgeries. Our Mission recently funded the renovation of a bath/treatment room for pediatric patients at the Hospital. As we develop a deeper relationship, our funding may be used for renovation of other parts of the hospital, including patient rooms and operating theater, all of which were constructed during the Soviet Union era.
POLAND
Art Therapy Classes – Warsaw:
The Mission supports multiple painting, crafts, woodworking and cooking classes through its art therapy programs with three teachers. In late 2022, the Mission started art therapy classes at the Modalinksa Refugee Center in Warsaw, which at that time, housed 4,500 Ukrainian women, children and elderly men. Several hundred younger Ukrainian children were going to a school in the building administered by Love Does, an American charity. The Mission met an art therapy teacher, Lilia Stadnik, a refugee from Kherson, and agreed to support Lilia’s art therapy program for refugee mothers and children at Modalinska. In early 2023, the Mission secured free space on the ground floor in Hines Poland’s Wola Center in central Warsaw for Lilia’s classes. The Mission later engaged Lyudmyla, a refugee from Mariupol, to also teach art therapy at Ukrainian schools in Warsaw. In late 2024, the Mission started woodworking classes for Ukrainian refugee adults and children taught by Leszek, a Polish citizen. The Mission pays each teacher a monthly stipend and purchases all of the easels, paints, equipment and supplies for the art therapy classes. In September 2025, the art therapy classes were moved from Hines Wola Center to a ground floor space across the Vistula river, still in central Warsaw, which we call “SolNest.” It is a comfortable resting place for the soul. Heart & Art Ukraine, our partner organization in Switzerland (https://heart-art-ukraine.com), purchased all the equipment and supplies for a full kitchen in SolNest in December 2025. Now, the “Magic Kitchen” is holding cooking classes and offering “comfort” Ukrainian food several days a week, as one more method of trauma therapy
Lilia also teaches art therapy two days per week for students at the Love Does School and holds art therapy classes four days a week. Luydmyla teaches five days a week at three Ukrainian schools in Warsaw and holds art therapy classes for Ukrainian families at the Museum of History of the Polish Jews (POLIN) on Saturdays. Lyudmyla also organizes summer camps near Warsaw for many of her students, providing arts and crafts for the children five days per week. Leszek has woodworking classes for Ukrainian refugee women and children three days a week. Both Lilia and Leszek also teach at the POLIN Museum from time to time. About quarterly, Lilia holds an art exhibition in Warsaw for her classes to display and speak about their art and experience. Altogether, the Mission’s art therapy classes touch about 200 Ukrainian women and children each week. Art therapy (art, woodwork, cooking) classes are being held for cancer patients, parents with special needs children and disabled adults – all refugees from the war. The women and children, who come together to enjoy companionship with fellow Ukrainians in a stress-free and creative environment, are extremely grateful for the Mission’s art therapy classes. The Mission has witnessed and heard from many adults and children about their art therapy experience and how it has positively affects their lives. Lilia has also held art therapy classes for Ukrainian orphans and pensioners. Just as important, Lilia and Lyudmyla have greatly benefitted from being “teachers” as they deliver hope and love to so many, because in so doing, they have are able to deal with their own traumas from the war.
Love Does School / Life Polska Foundation – Warsaw: https://lovedoes.org/poland/; https://lifepolska.org.pl/en/about-us/;
The Mission met with the Love Does School in early 2023 and has been a financial supporter ever since. The school first started in the Modalinska Refugee Center, but now leases a building in central Warsaw. This is a school for Ukrainian children who cannot afford to go to the Ukrainian schools or do not wish to attend the Polish schools, with bullying and learning challenges. The school is a cooperative effort between Life Polska Foundation/Warsaw and Love Does. (Love Does is a US charity. https://lovedoes.org/ukraine/). The teachers are all Ukrainian refugees, most of them former teachers. About 200 Ukrainian refugee children attend the school, which is K through 12 and about 120 children are on the waiting list. The Mission provides a monthly donation to support hot lunches for all 200 school children. Without that, many students would not have a lunch every day or would eat snacks from the corner store. The Mission also supports the Love Does campus with physical education/sports/dance class two days a week. In late 2024, the school moved into the last open space in their building. Upon completion of the school expansion, our Mission provided financial support for new furniture.
Lastly, our Mission is funding scholarships for two Ukrainian graduates (Class 2025) from the Love Does School to attend Warsaw Universtiy.
Happy Kids – Łódź: https://www.happykids.org.pl/sos-ukraina/
The Mission was introduced to Happy Kids in late 2022. Happy Kids was established over 25 years ago to change the old Polish (Soviet) orphan system to that of foster family, residential care. Happy Kids has 17 foster care homes in the Łódź area. At the start of the war in 2022, Happy Kids rescued over 1,200 Ukrainian orphans and their caregivers and found places for them to stay in Poland. Happy Kids now has over 250 Ukrainian orphans remaining under their care in the Łódź area and other areas in Poland. Our Mission, along with BCM & TCH, assisted Happy Kids in 2022-23 in upgrading their management structure and re-organizing to handle the influx of Ukrainian orphans.
Happy Kids recently informed our Mission of its project to renovate a building donated by the city of Łódź, to be an Intergenerational Community Center. This will serve both Polish and Ukrainian orphans in areas of psychotherapy, transition to adult life, trauma care, and generally developing friendships among Ukrainian and Polish orphans. The City supports this initiative and plans are to include senior citizens to work and provide mentorship at the Center. With available funding, the center could be open in mid-2027. If successful, the concept could be replicated in other Polish cities.
Radiant Hope – Warsaw: https://www.radianthope.org
We began supporting RadiantHope on a six-month pilot project in May 2025 to bring trauma therapy and trauma therapy practices to Ukrainian caregivers and youth in Warsaw and Łódź. RadiantHope is managed by Courtney Lauderdale, an American who has been active in delivering trauma care in India and Romania for over 15 years. She moved to Warsaw in 2024. One of the biggest issues facing Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees is the prevalence of PTSD and other traumas from the war and displacement. RadiantHope’s success in trauma care thus far has exceeded our expectations and we are expanding the program. RadiantHope is working with teachers at the Love Does Schools as well as caregivers for approximately 1,500 Ukrainian orphans cared for by LifeSong (USA) and around 250 Ukrainian orphans cared for by Happy Kids (Polish). We are planning to expand Courtney’s ability to reach more caregivers and teachers and, ultimately, the children, with a RadianHope web-based program of trauma care. Trauma care for the orphanage caregivers and school teachers is the first step in dealing with the children’s trauma.
Other Activities
Polish Medical Volunteers:
Our Mission supports “Foundation in the Meantime.” This is a group of Polish and international volunteer medics who have been working on the Ukrainian frontlines since 2014, when Russia initially invaded eastern Ukraine. They provide life-saving aid to military personnel in fiercely contested battle areas. Our Mission has supported them in the past by purchasing medical equipment and we hosted them to fundraise in Texas. With financial donations from Alex Timken (Austin, Texas), his supporters and our Mission, we have purchased over $40,000 worth of medical equipment. Alex periodically travels to Warsaw and delivers duffle bags full of needed medical equipment.
Fair Dog Denmark: https://www.facebook.com/groups/673239411646284/
This is a volunteer women’s group (started under the auspices of an animal protection organization) that collects tons and tons (literally) of donations in Denmark and neighboring countries, prepares for shipment and transports it all to Ukraine. When Fair Dog needed a sealed container to store pet and human food in their barn (or be closed down by the authorities), one of our donors bought and sent two ten-foot containers to Fair Dog. Our Mission periodically provides financial support to pay for lorries to transport donated goods and supplies to Ukraine.