Campanella Orthotics and Prosthetics volunteers its services and travels each year with the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation (HFTF). 

The HFTF is a Buffalo, New York based charity. Its founder is the renowned Dr. Jeffrey Meilman, a board certified plastic surgeon. Each year for the past 14 years, physicians and other volunteer medical specialists have traveled to developing countries. There, they have donated medical equipment and supplies. The delegate surgeons have performed numerous surgeries with a focus on correcting children's birth and trauma deformities. Surgeries requiring more time or specialized medical equipment, require that the child and a parent be transported to Buffalo. Following their recovery they are then transported back to their homeland.

Alex and Ursula of Campanella O & P have traveled with the HFTF to Nepal, Poland, Albania, Herzegovina and Nigeria. The Campanella's have donated $80,000 of brace and limb making supplies to O & P facilities and hospitals of these countries. In addition, they have made braces and artificial limbs for three individuals that were brought to Buffalo, all at no cost to those in need of service. Photos of two of these youths fitted with artificial limbs can be seen below. One is Marcin Cywka of Poland and another is Taras Kiniak of the Ukraine.

Marcin with Electronic Arm	Pope John Paul II, Marcin, Dr. Jeffery Meilman and Brian Rusk

Marcin, in his early teens, was attacked by wild dogs and lost his right arm from the shoulder. He was fitted with a state of the art electronic arm and hand. Marcin was able to pick up objects and even write his name immediately after the fitting of his arm.

Taras

The other boy named Taras also in his early teens lost his left arm below the elbow when he came in contact with high-tension electric wires. He was able to grasp objects with his artificial arm. It was powered by movement of his opposite shoulder, which was connected to thin cables built into the prosthetic device.

HFTF delegates plan to visit Peru in May 2007. The Campanella's plan to be with them to donate supplies and to design and fabricate any braces and limbs as needed. Details of the planned trip to Peru will be reported in this website upon their return.