The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first participated in a wheelchair initiative in 2003 to provide people with disabilities with a wheelchair. Without a wheelchair those individuals must rely on their friends and families for transportation or resort to crawling.
The Church distributes wheelchairs through local agencies, including first-lady foundations.
In 2006, 54,840 wheelchairs were distributed in 54 countries: Albania, American Samoa, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Barbados, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Style Guide Note:When reporting about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please use the complete name of the Church in the first reference. For more information on the use of the name of the Church, go to our online Style Guide.
Download MediaClose
To download media files, please first review and agree to the Terms of Use. Download a photo or video by clicking or tapping on it. To download all photos or videos related to this article, select the links at the bottom of each section.