Journey of a Chair
- CNH District
- Nov 11
- 2 min read
By Fred Hammer, Area Director
Joni and Friends Central California
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 80 million people worldwide need a wheelchair. However, only 5-35% have access to one. Through the Joni and Friends Wheels for the World Program, we are changing that reality—one chair, one life, and one soul at a time.
Here in Central California, our office is honored to sponsor and support partners in the Middle East and Mozambique, Africa, while our Bay Area office leads teams to Mexico and Tanzania—four of more than 30 Wheels for the World outreaches taking place across the globe.
This past September, I had the privilege of returning to the Middle East. Together, our U.S. team joined believers from South Africa, Armenia, and several Middle Eastern nations to personally fit and customize 120 wheelchairs for children, adults, and refugees—many living in camps across the region. Each person we serve receives a wheelchair, a Bible in their language, and the personal care, prayer, and dignity they deserve. Our mission is simple yet profound: To glorify God by communicating the Gospel and mobilizing the global church to evangelize, disciple, and serve people living with disability.
During our recent outreach, I met several individuals whose lives were forever changed. Jowad, age 6, a bright boy on the autism spectrum, had rarely left his home. With his new properly-sized chair and supportive harness, his family can now bring him into their community with confidence. After 19 years of being carried by her family, Nagham’s first wheelchair brought dignity, relief, and newfound independence.
Our Joni and Friends Central California and Bay area offices host wheelchair collection events—collecting and restoring nearly 1,000 chairs annually. Every donated chair is refurbished to like-new condition by inmates in prison-based restoration centers across the U.S. This redemptive process transforms not only the lives of those receiving the chairs, but also those restoring them—bringing hope, purpose, and dignity on both sides of the story.
If your church or community has a manual wheelchair, crutches, canes, or walkers that are no longer in use, please consider donating them to Joni and Friends. Your gift can literally change a life. Contact the following to schedule a wheelchair drop-off or pickup or learn more about how we can help provide free training for congregations or schools:
Central California (Sacramento-Fresno)
(916) 953-7434
Bay Area
(925) 452-8772
(Fred Hammer is a consultant on the CNH Disability Committee.)
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