Wheels for the World® meets the critical needs of people with disabilities.
The Joy of Mobility
New Wheels Give New Life
Agoura Hills CA, Aug. 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — For the first 11 years of Nada’s life, her mother, Mim, has carried her everywhere they went. From shopping to chores and even riding on a motorcycle, Nada relied on her mother’s strength to navigate life in their native Thailand.
Born with cerebral palsy, Nada is unable to walk and has limited function on one side of her body. Mim has been her daughter’s hands and feet her entire life. Despite the stigma surrounding disability, Mim cared for Nada with love and tenderness, wondering if their circumstances would ever improve.
Thanks to a new wheelchair, Mim and Nada can now enjoy a better life. This spring, Mim brought Nada to a Wheels for the World® outreach hosted by the international disability ministry Joni and Friends. There, physical therapists lovingly custom-fit a wheelchair to Nada’s small frame. While mechanics worked to alter Nada’s wheelchair, Joni and Friends President Shawn Thornton shared a message of hope with Mim. He told her that her daughter’s disability was not a curse or a punishment for bad karma. In fact, God had made both Mim and Nada in his own image. Above all, they were loved and embraced by a God who cares.
“What Joni and Friends does is the full gospel, because it’s word and deed, and Jesus never separated the two,” Shawn said.
This was indeed good news for Mim. Her daughter’s wheelchair would transform her life in practical ways. But a message of hope also brought Mim spiritual, mental and emotional transformation.
This wheelchair was a milestone in Nada and Mim’s life, but it also represents a huge moment for Joni and Friends. Nada received the 250,000th wheelchair distributed through Wheels for the World.
“The beauty of hitting a number like 250,000 is that every number has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters to God,” Shawn said. “It’s why I’m so grateful that we treat each wheelchair delivery as an opportunity to make an eternal impact on the recipient’s life by connecting them to a local church where they can grow in faith.”
This milestone was decades in the making. The seeds for this program were planted in 1989, when Joni and Friends Founder Joni Eareckson Tada was in the Philippines. During a monsoon, she watched a paralyzed woman army crawl across a muddy road with only a pair of flip flops on her hands. In that moment, Joni was inspired to do something to help that woman and the millions of disabled people around the world just like her.
Wheels for the World takes wheelchairs donated in the US, restores them in volunteer prison work programs, then distributes them to low-resource countries around the world. Each wheelchair is lovingly custom fit to each recipient to prevent secondary issues like pressure sores and scoliosis.
Each wheelchair is also given with a Bible and Joni’s autobiography, which recounts how her faith helped her embrace what life still had to offer after she was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teen. Additionally, each recipient is connected with a local, disability-friendly church to combat the social isolation, stigma, and loneliness that all too often comes with disability.
Wheels for the World launched in 1994 and since its first outreach in Africa, it has grown to include outreaches in nearly 90 countries.
Wheels for the World has 15 wheelchair restoration centers in correctional facilities across the US, and Joni and Friends receives wheelchair donations from 44 states. This sustainable approach ensures that redemption and restoration touches every person involved in each wheelchair’s journey from donors and inmates to recipients and their families.
Here is a brief timeline of how Wheels for the World reached the milestone of 250,000 distributing wheelchairs:
- 1994 Ghana – Our first Wheels for the World outreach launched a new era of global impact for Joni and Friends.
- 2003 India – Joni and Friends delivered our 25,000th wheelchair through Wheels for the World.
- 2005 – Eleven years after our first Wheels for the World outreach, Joni returned to Ghana to meet and serve more people living with disabilities.
- 2014 – We delivered our 100,000th wheelchair through Wheels for the World, this time to a boy named Ebenezer in Ghana.
- 2021 – Our 200,000th wheelchair was custom-fitted through Wheels for the World to a boy named Levi in El Salvador.
- 2026 – This year, our 250,000th wheelchair was given to 11-year-old Nada in Thailand. Like every Wheels for the World recipient, Nada and her mother received the gospel message, a Bible in their language, and a copy of Joni’s autobiography.
For Mim and Nada, this new wheelchair has restored mobility, dignity, and spiritual freedom. It’s a small miracle that has been repeated over a quarter of a million times throughout the past three decades, and one that is sure to continue thanks to the generosity of our donors, the hard work of our restoration centers, and the steadfast commitment of our volunteers who travel the world to give the gifts of mobility and hope.
“God used Joni to start all this when he showed her that one woman way back in 1989,” Shawn said.
Looking to the future, Joni and Friends aims to accelerate its outreach.
“Our program has gotten very big, but it is still always personal, and we still share the gospel and customize wheelchairs one person at a time. I’m hoping that as we cast a new and fresh vision, we can increase the capacity of the program,” Shawn said. “As the average American grows older, there will be more wheelchairs available than ever. To whom much is given, much is required, and there is an opportunity to scale up the programs and the volunteers as we partner not just with individuals, but with entire churches.”
If you would like to connect your church to Joni and Friends and our Wheels for the World program, you can find more information at https://joniandfriends.org/wheels-for-the-world/.
About Joni and Friends
For more than 45 years, Joni and Friends has provided the hope of the Gospel and practical care to people living with disability across the globe. Ministry programs include Joni’s House, Wheels for the World, Retreats & Getaways, and disability ministry training. Joni and Friends also delivers daily inspirational media through radio programs and podcasts. To find out more, please visit www.joniandfriends.org.
Attachments
- The Joy of Mobility
- New Wheels Give New Life
CONTACT: Amy Hurtado Joni and Friends 818.575.1766 [email protected]
