October 16, 2025 • 49 mins
When Nuka Hart answered God’s call to lead Free Wheelchair Mission, she stepped into a global movement that has transformed more than a million lives — one wheelchair at a time. As CEO, Nuka blends her deep faith with bold leadership to bring hope and mobility to people who might otherwise be forgotten.
In this episode of Amazing Greats, Nuka shares her personal faith journey, the moments that confirmed her calling, and the powerful stories of transformation she’s witnessed in communities around the world. You’ll hear how simple acts of compassion can ripple across nations — and how God can use even the smallest “yes” to move mountains.
It’s a story of vision, perseverance, and the incredible grace of God at work through ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Whether you’re a leader, a dreamer, or someone searching for purpose, Nuka’s story will remind you that faith in motion truly changes the world.
PS I just bought my first wheelchair to provide mobility to someone who desperately needs it. It was easy....for $100 you can to. Just click here.
"Amazing Greats" is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey. Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels. Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google and our YouTube Channel.
Please help us grow our audience by "liking", "subscribing and "Sharing". Thanks so much.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hi everyone, I'm Jim Zorn.
Earlier this year, I went to theDominican Republic with free
wheelchair missions.
I took a few baseballs that theMariners gave to me signed by
Julio Rodriguez, who's from theDominican.
We went all around deliveringfree wheelchairs.
SPEAKER_03 (00:18):
Hey there, Rick Hansen here, your host of great
with the amazing free wheelchairmission.
(01:06):
And it's such a great cause, andI really appreciate your
knocking out some time to talkwith us on Amazing GREATES.
Uh you know, the wonderful thingabout your mission is you kind
of tell us the wholeorganization's story in three
words.
Free wheelchair mission.
Okay, that's what it is.
But let's dig deeper than that.
(01:27):
Uh, first of all, welcome andthank you for being here.
This will be fun.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you to your subscribersand loyal listeners for caring
to listen.
SPEAKER_03 (01:38):
Cool, cool, cool.
So is it for daring to listen?
Is that what you said?
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
We all have so many choices and options, right,
nowadays.
And I and I always thank peoplefor their time because it's so
precious.
SPEAKER_03 (01:51):
Yeah, yeah, no kidding.
Well, so this, so uh FreedomWheelchair mission started 24
years ago.
Right.
And you weren't involved then.
But can you give us a littlesnippet of uh the founding story
uh behind the idea?
First of all, I I gotta say thatum I thought when I heard the
name, and you know, just in mymind, I was thinking, well, you
(02:12):
guys buy wheelchairs and thenyou distribute them.
That's your job is distributingthem.
But it's a whole lot more thanthat, too.
And I want to get into the depthof what it's all about.
SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
How it all works, right?
Okay.
Well, yes, you're right.
It started long before I cameon.
I just have only been here foreight years, but 24 years ago,
it started from our founder, DonSchorndorfer, a biomedical
engineer with the biggest,biggest heart and a boatload of
humility and love for God,answering a calling that he had
(02:46):
to do something with his talentsto solve a problem.
And it was a problem that he sawwhen he was on a trip many years
before that with his late wife.
And the problem was findingsomebody on the ground crawling
in need of an assistive devicelike a wheelchair.
And I tell people he couldn'tunsee that vision that he saw
(03:06):
when he was on vacation.
And he dedicated some time toacting and doing something about
it, using his talents as anengineer to innovate for a
solution, to find a wheelchairthat could be created in a
cost-effective manner, thatcould be made durably, that
could then be sent out as adesign to developing countries
(03:31):
and potentially governments andother entities to solve the
problem of disability wherepeople need a wheelchair and
don't have an access to one.
The overwhelming problem withwheelchairs in the world is an
estimate that the World HealthOrganization has that there are
80 million people at any giventime that need a wheelchair, and
(03:52):
the vast majority do not haveaccess.
So, what Don was trying toachieve was finding a solution
that was cost-effective thatwould cut into that number.
What he didn't realize, andwhere he answered God's call,
was that it was really about himcreating the wheelchair and not
selling the patent or thedesign, but creating an
organization that would make anduse that design, make the
(04:16):
wheelchairs, as you said, andthen give them out en masse for
free to nations, to NGOs, toindividuals all over the world
that are in need.
And that's what we've done fromthe very beginning.
It started with the very firstwheelchair we gave out in India.
And now, 24 years later, we'vegiven out 1.5 million
(04:40):
wheelchairs.
We've touched 95 countries.
And I tell people that Ibelieve, and I mean, there's
some data that potentially showsthis that we probably have given
out or give out the mostwheelchairs per year of any
other nonprofit that exclusivelyfocuses on wheelchair
distribution.
(05:00):
So we're very proud of that.
And the way we do it, as youdescribed, is to manufacture the
wheelchairs through our twofactories that we have, and then
to distribute them unassembledin boxes in container shipments
to different partners all overthe world.
Then we train our partners as tohow to assemble the wheelchairs,
(05:25):
how to assess the recipients ofthe wheelchairs, and then we
tell them it would be ourgreatest honor and privilege to
be able to share the messagethat the individuals who are
receiving these wheelchairs areloved by God and are not to be
forgotten, that they aredeserving of his love and they
shouldn't be cast aside, andthat the wheelchair is our
(05:46):
privilege to be able to give tothem and to their families.
And that's how it all works.
SPEAKER_03 (05:56):
We had a we have a pretty massively big God, and he
expects us to uh do big thingswith his gifts, and certainly uh
that little seed of a design uhblossomed into this uh amazing
manufacturing situation thatyou're doing today, which is
incredible.
So was he handling this wholething by himself back in the
(06:16):
day, or did he have a help, orhow did that go?
SPEAKER_01 (06:19):
I tell people that free will transmission was kind
of like what we told we use theterminology now, startup, right?
I don't know if people use theword startup back in, you know,
24 years ago, but it was aglorified startup nonprofit.
It started in a man's garage,tinkering with everything from
white resin, plastic to uh steelto rubber.
(06:41):
And then he gathered friends,people from his church, people
that he knew that could help himto do all of the, you know, per
se grunt work, all the thingsthat it requires to run a
startup.
A startup in this case was anonprofit.
So everything from theaccounting to how are we going
to get people to take interest,how are we gonna ship these
things, where can we find afactory that would make these
things en masse?
(07:02):
And then it flourished fromthere.
Not Don even says that he got anonprofit for dummies book to
learn and educate himself.
Like most nonprofit uh or Iwould say startup leaders, you
know, there's a lot that yourecognize that you don't know,
right?
You may start out with a greatidea and you feel this calling,
but then very soon, especiallyif you've had a lot of success
(07:25):
and growth, you realize all thecomplexities of the execution
and the business model thatrequires other people to help
you to implement.
And Don quickly had to add tothe team and to add other people
to give him that advice.
So now, 24 years later, we nowhave a team of 40 people.
(07:46):
We're a full-fledged nonprofit.
There have been many iterationsof how we do it now that is
completely evolved.
And we've had many iterations ofour wheelchair that are not the
same original design any longer.
So we can touch on that.
But the nucleus of who we arehas not changed.
So, as you said, it's a freewheelchair mission.
(08:10):
And the driving reason, themotivation is that we're
motivated by God to do thiswork, to serve other people that
need to be lifted up in theirhearts and in their bodies with
a wheelchair.
And we give them a device thatis of good sound quality, but
made specifically for thedeveloping world in the way that
(08:33):
it's designed to handle andwithstand the terrain and the
variety of things that you seein those countries.
SPEAKER_03 (08:40):
I was hoping you were going to touch on that
because that's that's asignificant part.
It's not something you can justgo down to your local uh
wheelchair store and get.
It's something special for thesespecial environments that they
get placed into.
So that's great.
So now, how do you find uh waysto get these to the people that
need them most?
I mean, what's what's the thestructure that you have in place
(09:01):
to distribute?
SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Yeah, we have relied on, we learn this over time.
So this, I don't think, was thefirst, it wasn't the first idea,
right?
Again, start up with an idea andthen you learn as you go.
And over the years, we learnedthat the best model for us was
to rely on partners on theground in the countries where we
work.
Some of those partners could bewhat we call non-governmental
(09:25):
organizations, so NGOs.
In our model, it could beconsidered to be a
non-for-profit that's notaffiliated with the government.
And then some of them arechurches, some of them are
clinics or hospitals, butthey're all focused on serving
the people in their country.
Some of them work in multiplecountries, right?
They may be headquartered in theUnited States or in Europe, but
(09:49):
they do work in places wherethere's great need.
And they are the ones thatpartner with us contractually to
receive our wheelchairs and thento assess and find the people
that would be seated in ourwheelchairs.
So they are on the ground,they're either finding those
individuals through lists thatare waiting, long waiting lists
(10:11):
and clinics or hospitals ofindividuals who've been waiting
for that kind of a resource.
It could just be ground from thebaseline, grounds up uh
communication within a smallcommunity like a church or a
rotary club or alliance clubthat you see in these other
countries, even not just theUnited States, where people just
(10:34):
know that that man, that womandown the street had an accident,
had some sort of disability thatcreeped up, or just birthed a
child that will not be able towalk and will need a wheelchair
eventually.
And from there, they are able tobuild a list that then can be
served of individuals who willget our wheelchairs when they
(10:57):
arrive.
SPEAKER_03 (10:57):
Today on Amazing Greats, I'm talking with Nuka
Hart, the CEO of Free WheelchairMission, who's bringing mobility
and hope to people around theworld.
There's no way that it seemslike there because there's a
demand of 80 million people,you're always backed up.
I mean, is there always superdemand for everything that comes
out of the factory?
SPEAKER_01 (11:18):
Yeah, you know, the way we do our work is based
upon, like I said, thosepartnerships.
And those partnerships each havetheir limitations of capacity.
So even though they may havehigh need in their country, they
may only have so much that theycan handle and to distribute.
They may only have so manyvolunteers or staff, or just the
(11:40):
logistical complication of nothaving enough warehousing to
store the wheelchairs.
Or in a place like I visitedthis summer in Brazil, where we
were visiting in the Amazon,they're limited by climate and
the weather, right?
There's this finite amount oftime in that specific area of
that country where they can evendistribute.
(12:02):
So while the numbers ofpopulations might be high, it
really does require for thecapacity to be high on the
ground to actually get deliverthe product and to do it safely.
So it's not like distributingloaves of bread per se, right?
Which is extremely importantwork.
(12:23):
You have to feed people, right?
But you don't have to consideras much, unless they have a
gluten allergy, about um thingslike we do in the wheelchair
world around did we measurethem?
Did we size them correctly?
Did we teach them the exercisesthey need to do to be safe in
(12:44):
the wheelchair?
Did we consider if thewheelchair is the right solution
for them?
Are we going to do more harm byputting them in a wheelchair as
opposed to encouraging them touse their walker?
And is the wheelchair going tolast them for a long time if
they're five years old andthey're probably going to grow,
right?
From five years old to 15 to 25.
(13:07):
So those are all things that wetrain to and we have to worry
about with our partners and whyalso there's a you know a
capacity limitation and timelimitation, how it's executed.
But the prayer is that we will,you know, in get enough support
and be able to grow the capacitywith our partners so that we're
(13:31):
always increasing how manywheelchairs we give out and
supplying and supporting theseindividuals so that we create a
sustainable, you know,expectation of when the
wheelchairs will arrive so thatthe waiting lists are shorter,
even though we know the needwill always be there, but they
(13:52):
they know that they can expectto receive.
SPEAKER_03 (13:55):
Gotcha.
Well, you know, I have a specialuh heart for what you're doing
because I am involved in ourchurch uh with an event called
Night to Shine.
Are you familiar with?
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
I'm very familiar with that.
This is the Tim TebowFoundation.
And Tim Tebow actually spoke atone of our events many years
ago.
And the Night to Shine is aninitiative that one of our
distribution partners in Haiti,based in Kapaisia in the north
of Haiti, does every singleyear.
(14:27):
And I actually almostparticipated in that event.
It was when was it?
It was in 2024, just last yearin February.
And I missed it because of theunrest that happened in the
country that caused me, it was awhole explosion of problems, as
you may have heard, to have toleave there for my safety.
(14:50):
And I missed the event.
It's a fantastic event thatreally in what the way we are
part of it is because the peoplethat are our wheelchair
beneficiaries, the children, getdressed up and get to have the
beautiful experience of beinghighlighted for their beauty and
get to feel like the center ofattention with their TRs and
(15:12):
scepters, like a prom, right?
And um, it's wonderful becauseit shows a whole community that
people with disabilities shouldbe heralded, they have their own
inner and outer beauty, and theyshould not be marginalized but
made to feel special.
So I just love that event.
SPEAKER_03 (15:32):
You're making me tear up over here.
It's like um, because it's sospecial for us, you know, and
and as you've described, um,once people understand what it
is, this night of you knowwonderful fun, um, everybody
wants to be involved.
Yeah.
And it's like this communityevent that it's it's it's
(15:53):
contagious.
SPEAKER_01 (15:54):
Even though I didn't get to go, I it was so much fun
in the days leading up to it tohelp make the tiaras for the
kids.
And I got to see, you know, whatthey had done the year before
and seeing the kids look atthemselves in the mirror and
never having seen themselves inthat way, right?
Dressed up a little bit andlooking outwardly more beautiful
(16:16):
than they expected that theywould ever look.
It's just it's amazing.
I love that.
SPEAKER_03 (16:20):
Yeah, yeah.
So let's jump into your storybecause you know you've been uh
you've been leading this umcharge for uh the last eight
years.
Is that what you said?
So um how is it first of all?
You're you're you're let's go inthe way back machine.
SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
Oh boy, no, no telling ages, please.
SPEAKER_03 (16:46):
So so tell us um childhood.
Did you grow up in a Christianhousehold?
SPEAKER_01 (16:50):
I did.
I grew up in a Christianimmigrant household.
I'm first generation American.
I was born on the East Coast inNew York.
My parents immigrated fromHaiti.
We talked about Haitian Night toShine, but that's where they
came from.
They met in the States.
They had me in New York.
They came to the United Stateslike most immigrants do for
(17:12):
opportunity.
And they became citizens and hadme, and they were both in the
medical profession.
My parents are both doctors.
And so it's kind of wild thatI'm now working for an
organization that deals withpatients and mobility issues.
It's as close as I could get tobeing uh in their in their
(17:34):
world.
And they're both passed on now,but I did grow up in a Christian
household, and I, you know, itwas it is part of a lot of the
Haitian culture.
I know there are other, youknow, types of faith in Haiti,
predominantly Catholic in Haiti.
There is a part of uh alsoProtestant that has grown over
(17:57):
the years, but I grew up fromthe very beginning going to
church every Sunday.
Uh, I was baptized, I did allthat stuff.
And my mom died when I wasreally young.
My dad did since then remarry,but because of that trauma, I
believe that my faith actuallygrew stronger because when you
(18:21):
go through something as a child,you have to grow up a lot
faster.
And I feel like the growing upprocess for those of us that
have been, you know, have hadfaith from a young age or grew
up in the church, part of ourprocess of growing up is, you
know, being introduced to faithstructure like church or Bible
(18:47):
study or vacation Bible study orprayers or scripture by our
parents.
And then making a consciousdecision at some point, there's
a fork in the road that happens,right?
Are you going to do what theysaid and follow what they were
teaching?
Or are you gonna go in adifferent direction?
(19:08):
And that other direction you goin, is it more religious, more
ingrained in faith, or is itcompletely different, right?
There is a point where itbecomes more about you know your
own choice and not thetechnically the indoctrination
of your parents, right?
Which and so for me, thatprocess happened earlier because
I believe I went throughsomething.
(19:30):
And I think for a lot of us whodon't go through something as a
young age, you do that throughyour normal cycle of growing.
It could be when you reachuniversity or you have your
first child, or you start tojust leave and cleave to
adulting, right?
So I've always had faith in theLord, I've always held on to
(19:51):
certain principles.
I found myself on my knees froma very young age, trying to
figure out why things happenedto me the way they did, and
holding on to words like hopeand you know, trying to not be
anxious about my situation.
And I think that's what'scarried me through to this day
(20:13):
now.
I think when you go through atrauma when you're a young
child, it's can completelychange your trajectory of your
life.
But I believe that my faithsustained me.
And I also think it's a littlebit of the way I'm wired as a
Haitian woman or Haitiandescent.
Um, it's the way I was raised tobe very resilient and to not
(20:36):
only think about myself, thatthere are bigger problems,
bigger issues out there.
And it's what I think that is atrajectory that I was on as well
with my career, that it's notall about me.
It's about the work that I'mdoing and what I can do to give
back using my talent.
SPEAKER_03 (20:54):
If I'm hearing you right, so there was it a gradual
kind of maturing, or was there apivotal moment?
Was there a time where you said,you know, now I know this is
real, now I know Jesuspersonally.
Some people have that, othersnot necessarily.
They just kind of into it.
What was your situation?
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
You know, when you lose your mom when you're seven
years old, you kind of I mean, Ia lot of people can't even
fathom that, right?
But there's definitely a momentof why God did this happen to
me, right?
Why me, why me, why me, which isI think a nor normal inclination
for any child as I look at it asan adult.
And so there definitely wasthat.
(21:34):
And then there was a lot offear, right?
Because I came to face somethingthat really roots us in our
faith, which is our mortality.
And what does it mean to thenthink beyond the to the now and
the earth?
It's about the forever and theeverlasting, which is your
relationship with God, right?
And so I was forced to thinkabout that earlier because here
(21:56):
I am faced with a person who'snever supposed to go away, my
mom going away and in a weirdway, right?
Like, you know, she had adisease, something happened, and
now she's gone, this vibrantperson.
So I think that was a pivotalmoment, but it was still encased
in some fear and unsurety.
There was another pivotal momentfor me, which was when I had my
(22:20):
first child, and I would, Iremember I had just birthed my
child, and I'm sitting there inthe uh hospital with the little,
I guess, a little bed they giveyou.
At the time, it was like thisclear, uh, kind of like a
bassinet box, and the baby'snext to you, and it was at some
(22:40):
ungodly hour of like four in themorning, and I'm looking at this
baby.
I'm sitting in the in the bed,and my husband at the time was
either snoring on the futon nextto me in the hospital room or
gone, and I'm just looking atthe baby, and I'm thinking, oh
my goodness, I'm responsible forthis child.
And then I remember tearsstreaming down my face and me
(23:02):
realizing what my mom must havefelt like leaving, knowing that
she was dying and knowing thatshe was leaving behind two
children.
And that's when God and I hadanother pivotal conversation
about mortality and what I washere to do and him being here.
(23:24):
And it was earth-shattering tome because again, backwards to
seven years old, why me, why Goddid this happen?
To now I understand like it'snot about me.
This woman who was my mom had toleave me behind.
So it's really about whathappened to her and the reality
that she had to go through.
Oh my goodness, why Lord, isthis happening?
(23:46):
I'm having to leave behind twochildren.
Because then I got to see itfrom her eyes.
And I also got to haveThanksgiving in that moment as
well, of thanking God forbringing me to a moment to be
able to experience that.
Because I could have never had achild, right?
But I got to experience thebeauty of having a children.
And there are other couple ofmoments, but that's when I
(24:06):
recognized that I really needhim.
I, if I'm gonna be a good momand I'm gonna survive in this
world for this child, because mygoal then became, I became I am
going to last more than sevenyears into this child's life,
right?
I need to pray to him all thetime because I need to make it
for this child, because I don'twant for this child to deal with
(24:30):
what I dealt with in terms ofnot having my mom there.
And so that was a huge momentfor me.
There are others, even for mecoming to Free Will Tremission,
the day that I decided to, youknow, go forth and answer his
call to be in this capacity asleading the organization.
So I could go on and on.
You don't have all the hours inthe day, Rick, to talk about my
(24:52):
faith journeys.
Faith journeys are there,they're never a uh there's no
end.
They're you're constantlyworking on them, right?
SPEAKER_03 (25:01):
We're talking with Nuka Hart, a leader whose faith
is driving a mission totransform lives one wheelchair
at a time.
Tell me, uh, how old's your is ason, right?
Was your child or son?
How old is he now?
SPEAKER_01 (25:14):
26.
SPEAKER_03 (25:15):
26.
How cool is that, huh?
Well, I that so in yourspiritual journey, um, there are
certain practices that groundyou, that keep you connected
with Jesus.
For you in your life, what whatare those spiritual practices
that are a part of your life?
SPEAKER_01 (25:33):
My number one practice, number one practice,
and it requires a lot ofdiscipline, is praying with my
husband every morning.
I do two things.
It's like a very personal thinghere that I'm sharing.
SPEAKER_03 (25:47):
I don't know why I'm sharing this because I don't
really go to your job.
SPEAKER_01 (25:52):
So I actually I'm the early riser, and now that
we're empty nesters, you know,we don't have to go and bottle
feed or, you know, pick up ababy and change a diaper, right?
So in the quiet of the morning,I usually wake up and I thank
God before he wakes up and Ilook at him because I thank him
(26:12):
for him, right?
I thank the Lord for my husbandand I thank the Lord for
allowing me to wake up.
I have more awareness of whatit, the value of waking up and
the importance of that than Ithink a lot of people do because
of what I went through as achild.
And I identified that wayearlier.
Some people can think of it asmorbid, but I think of it as a
(26:34):
Thanksgiving.
So that's the first thing I do.
It's just a very, it's a verysimple, thank you, God, you
know.
And then the next thing I do isI wake him up, you know, and we
assess like what our day isgoing to be.
And as long as we don't have todash, dash, dash, I try my very
best to spend at least five toten minutes with him praying.
And we go through a specifictype of prayer that we do.
(26:58):
And it's a lot of intentionsthat we're speaking in terms of
needs for others in our familythat we know are struggling or
dealing with something, ourchildren, our extended family,
and our friends, and for eachother.
So that's something that I feelis a constant.
And I feel really bad when Imiss it or when we're in
(27:21):
different time zones and I missit.
But that is one of the thebiggest practices that I have
integrated into my life thatgrounds me.
SPEAKER_03 (27:30):
So your husband's alarm clock for starters, which
is one.
SPEAKER_01 (27:34):
Whether he likes it or not.
SPEAKER_03 (27:35):
Whether he likes it or not, which is great.
So what happens?
You travel a lot.
So what happens on those uhthose mornings?
SPEAKER_01 (27:42):
Sometimes we call each other, you know, and
sometimes we do the prayer atanother time of the day.
I've been known to pray with himwhile I'm driving somewhere.
We ask each other, is theresomething you want me to pray
about?
And that sort of thing.
And we're pretty good about it.
You know, we have our favoritescripture, of course, that we
mutually love.
And this is my second marriageand his as well.
(28:03):
So I think there's somethingvery beautiful about that too,
because we have a deeperappreciation for the fact that
the Lord is about multiplechances, right?
And hopefully you don't have todo that in marriage because the
idea of marriage is for it tonot be a multiple chance giving
thing that you do it for life.
(28:24):
But when the circumstances bearto be that, that he does give
you that grace is a big deal.
So we don't take it for granted.
What's the scripture that it'sPhilippians 4, 6?
SPEAKER_03 (28:36):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (28:36):
It's about not being anxious.
It's all about it ties togetherwhat I was talking about before.
It's not, it's it's about notbeing anxious and putting and
giving all your petitions forThanksgiving and your requests
to God.
SPEAKER_03 (28:49):
So challenges.
Uh uh, we've you you've alreadyexplained a couple of them.
Uh, what other challenges?
Maybe uh your career challenges,things where along the way uh it
seemed like things weren't goingthe right way.
Yeah.
And you weren't you're temptedto think that God wasn't
listening somehow.
Tell me about one of thosesituations.
SPEAKER_01 (29:10):
Oh goodness.
I think all leaders have that,or all people in any, you don't
have to be in a leadershipcapacity.
You wonder, am I in the rightplace?
Should I be doing somethingelse?
Is it grass greener somewhereelse?
You know, am I feeling valued?
You definitely have those innervoices, right?
And your career is so critical,right?
It's the thing that you do inthe majority of your awake
(29:33):
hours, your alert hours whenyou're alive on this planet.
So you better be doing somethingthat you enjoy or that you find
to be meaningful.
Uh, I think that for me, theredefinitely was, you know, I was
working at another organizationbefore that I felt I was making
a big impact with, but I was alittle antsy.
(29:55):
I wasn't sure about whether ornot it was time for me to stay.
Or go.
SPEAKER_03 (30:01):
That was United Way, right?
SPEAKER_01 (30:03):
I had a leadership position.
I felt that I had an amazingteam, an amazing, amazing team.
I loved my team.
It's one of those things thatyou say, Am I am I happy?
Am I not?
You know, and there weredefinitely ups and downs there.
But what was tugging at my heartwas the fact that I wasn't doing
enough.
(30:24):
You know, I felt like I hadshown and demonstrated that I
could raise funds and do thatwell for the initiative where I
was the areas where I wasliving.
But I, because of my heritage,felt a bit guilty that I wasn't
doing enough for Haiti and othercountries around the world that
I felt were suffering more.
And so when I was recruited forfree will transmission, I kind
(30:48):
of felt like I had a potentialto do something more through
free will transmission.
I thought, well, maybe this isit.
But honestly, Rick, it waswheelchairs.
What did I know aboutwheelchairs?
Right.
And how come I hadn't heard thisorganization before?
And why would they want me?
And also their headquarters wasso far from where I lived.
Why would I go there?
(31:09):
And I still went on theinterview.
There's a lot of reasons why Idid that that I won't go into.
It's a whole other story.
But by the time I finished thegrueling interview, I walked
away after kind of beingvoluntole to go on this
interview, wanting the job andpassionately wanting the job.
(31:31):
Like the minute I got in thecar, I said to myself, Oh God,
what am I going to do?
I mean, I said it out loud.
Oh God, what am I going to do?
I really want this job.
I'm sitting in the car bymyself, going up the freeway
back home.
And within 20 minutes, 15minutes, something like that,
the recruiter called me andsaid, They want you to come
back.
When you can you come back?
(31:53):
And I knew, I knew it.
I knew it even before he called.
I said, you know, that was areally hard interview, but I
just had this feeling they wantme.
And what am I going to do?
Like, I did not expect that Iwas leaving this job now.
And it was really interestingbecause here I am feeling that
feeling of, well, you know, whatshould I do?
Is this right?
(32:14):
Am I not sure?
Blah, blah, blah.
And God just laid it out for mein this mysterious way,
unexpected way.
And he kind of forced my handand made it abundantly clear.
And then I gave tons of notice.
I think I gave like two months,three months notice, something
like that, because this was allin like November or something.
(32:35):
And I started February 1st,eight years ago.
And here I am.
And the complexity of leading anorganization that was
founder-led, which a lot ofpeople do, right?
They take over for a founder.
And it's not easy to do that,right?
And I knew it from the beginningthat that's what I was taking
(32:55):
on, has had its ups and downs.
SPEAKER_03 (32:58):
Rick Hansen here on Amazing Greats with Nuka Hart,
who shares her journey offollowing God's calling to serve
the most vulnerable around theworld.
So you were the first CEO.
You took over for Don.
SPEAKER_01 (33:10):
Yeah, I took over for Don.
Technically, there were twoother executive directors
preceding me, and they didn'tlast for a long time for one
reason or another.
They were there for a shorttime.
And then Don went back intoleadership for the organization
for a couple of years.
And, you know, he said to me, Iwas a little nervous about
(33:34):
bringing somebody else in again.
You know, I knew all of thatgoing in, which I really,
really, really appreciate.
It's the worst thing when youget a job, you take on a job,
and nobody tells you, you know,all of the things behind the
door, behind door number one,two, three, and four, right?
And so I was told that it wouldbe new.
(33:56):
It would be new for the team, itwould be new for Don, and it
would be new for our supportersto have somebody other than Don
leading.
And also, people would be alittle skittish about whether or
not it was going to work becauseit didn't always work before.
So that was a big undertaking.
And Don is a fantastic person.
(34:17):
So also bringing on a newindividual with new ideas, a
woman, you know, coming from adifferent background, all of
these things could also becomplex, right?
But I've had from the beginninghis trust.
And yes, we've gone through ourups and downs, but I've had his
trust, the leadership's trust interms of our board of directors.
(34:40):
And over time, I've, you know,built the trust of the team.
I hope I've earned it.
And I hope I've earned the trustof our supporters.
And I hope I'm showing them thatwhat I called before the nucleus
of what free will transmissionis, the essence of it is still
important and vital for us tomaintain.
While we may hone it a littlebit differently, and we may
(35:06):
evolve in some regards to bemore efficient or cost effective
or embracing the times we're in,keeping true to the values and
maintaining the integrity of themission has been my personal
mission and my promise to Don.
SPEAKER_03 (35:23):
Stepping back just one step here, because I'm I'm
always intrigued by uh how Godspeaks to people.
And you said that was a that wasa clear indication at that time
was is there an audible voicefor you, or is it just like a
knowing?
Uh how do you experience thecall of God?
SPEAKER_01 (35:41):
Well, I have an art background.
I studied art, so I have a lotof visuals in my brain.
Visuals, as they say my firstlanguage in French, tableaus,
right?
Tableau.
Like I see things in imagery inthe way I think.
My husband tells me, Your dreamsare so colorful.
(36:02):
You know, when I tell him abouta dream I have.
So when I think about what Godsays to me, I don't think about
it just in words, but I think ofit in like paintings and
pictures.
SPEAKER_02 (36:12):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (36:12):
And I sometimes look for signs.
I used to like even look at animage of my mom, and I used to
say, God, move her eyes so thatI could know whether or not it's
and of course the eyes wouldnever move, right?
But yeah, I mean, I do I do havethe audibles, and I told you
about one when I was in that inthat uh car coming up the
(36:38):
freeway, and I feel like it wasvery clear, and I was having a
conversation saying, Oh god, ohgod, I really want this job.
And then all of a sudden thephone rings, right?
And I felt like you know, youcan call it a sign, you could,
you know, you can call it thatGod made the phone ring, you
know, whatever you want to say,every people will poke at that.
But I'll tell you, I was notexpecting to work at a
(37:00):
wheelchair, predominantlywheelchair-focused nonprofit in
Orange County in headquartersand touching global, having a
global reach that I neverexpected.
God did that, right?
Yeah, and I certainly wasn'texpecting that the very first
wheelchair that I gave out, Ican tell you that story.
SPEAKER_03 (37:20):
Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_01 (37:22):
Was in Haiti.
And I, you know, people wouldsay, Well, of course you gave it
out in Haiti, it's your likecountry of heritage.
And I would say, actually, I wassupposed to give out my first
wheelchair in Vietnam because atthe time that was our number one
country that we weredistributing in.
And that was the plan.
Like after I had been here for10 months or something, nine
months, and sinking my teethinto the mission that I would
(37:44):
finally go out in the field andsee the work.
And we planned the trip.
And I can't recall whathappened, but something
happened.
We had to cancel the trip.
Something with the partner,maybe it was weather.
I completely I'm blanking.
And I was a little bit dismayedand frustrated.
Oh, darn, I needed to see thispartner.
And I remember meeting with Don.
(38:05):
We were meeting, you know,one-on-one one day, and he says,
When are you gonna get outthere?
When are you gonna get out thereand see the work?
And I said, I don't know.
This trip for Vietnam, it gotcanceled and blah, blah, blah.
And he looked at me, he's like,just get on a plane and go to
another country then.
And I just looked at him, Isaid, Oh, right, I'm leading
(38:26):
this organization.
I guess I could kind of do that.
And he said, Where do you wantto go?
Why don't you go to Haiti?
That's where, you know, andthat's how it happened.
And so I went to Haiti and weorganized this trip for me to
have a solo trip to meet ouramazing partner, Food for the
Poor, there in the Capitol.
At the time, it was a lot saferthan it is today.
(38:47):
And my first wheelchair I gaveout was to a boy who had
suffered tragically the loss ofhis leg in the earthquake that
happened in 2010.
So now I'm getting to him in2018, eight years later, where
he had waited for eight years toreceive a wheelchair.
(39:11):
He had an amputation, he hadbeen walking around using
crutches exclusively forcrawling, right?
Dragging himself.
(39:34):
So they lived in a really youknow hard part of the capital.
And here I am seeing this as thefirst child, I first person I
get to put in a wheelchair.
And it just was another Godmoment because I'm like, oh my
gosh, if my parents hadimmigrated, I could, I could
(39:56):
have been his mother, right?
Like, what would be thedifference between me and that
mother, right?
Not much.
He came home from school like mykids do at four o'clock, and
then this earthquake hit, andboom, this his life changed.
There's no difference between anearthquake happening in
California, where I live, andthis mom in Haiti.
(40:18):
And the big difference only isthe lack of resource and the
challenge that there was in theinfrastructure in that country.
So it was a beautiful moment forme.
And then I went to visit my dearsweet cousin and his wife, who
live there.
And I remember showing them thephoto of this young man that
(40:40):
day.
And they asked me, where wereyou when you gave this
wheelchair?
And I explained it.
And his wife, I'll never forgetit.
She says, Wait, I know that boy.
I said, What?
She says, I see him going to andfrom school all the time because
it's on my way to work.
(41:01):
And she described him to tea,and it was just so affirming.
And then they affirmed whereour, you know, where what are
the work our partner's doingthere?
So it's just, it was a fullcircle moment.
I had such pride that I was ableto demonstrate the impact that
we're making in a visual way forthem, for something that they
(41:23):
had suffered trauma as well inhaving been a part of that time
of the earthquake in Haiti.
And I think, I think they wereproud of me that I did that
work.
And yeah, that was a big moment.
SPEAKER_03 (41:39):
Yeah, and now there's uh 1.5 million of those
moments around the world.
And you're in charge.
You're the one that's kind ofmaking it all happen.
SPEAKER_01 (41:49):
Well, I I will say you and your team, let's say
that 1 million percent, Rick.
Because I tell them it's notabout me and it's not about Don.
I tell them all the time.
Some of them I roll me, I know.
I tell them all the time, it'snot about the missionary, it's
about the mission.
We need to work together and weneed to do our work so well that
(42:13):
we aren't the entity that'snecessary for the work to take
place.
So my job is to bring them alltogether, to figure out ways
strategically for them to workeffectively, to challenge, to
push, but I am reliant on themto execute, to come up with
ideas, to push me a little,right?
And to make it happen.
(42:36):
I need to know that that'shappening and that I'm not
required for that to happen.
I'm not doing my job well if I'mnecessary.
SPEAKER_03 (42:45):
Wow.
That's a great uh that's a greatidea.
I hadn't heard it put quite thatway before, but that's
incredible.
So of the team, how many I mean,is everybody Christian or are
they kind of Christian-ish, orhow does all of that fit into
technically?
SPEAKER_01 (43:02):
I have no idea.
SPEAKER_03 (43:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
So we're not a church, we're faith-based, so we
do not have a litmus test orrequirement, and we can't
legally for Christianish,Christian, not Christian, but
everybody has their eyes wideopen that our mission is
faith-based, that we have amotivation to do this work, that
(43:26):
is Jesus.
It's in our faith missionstatement.
And we're very transparent withpeople about that in job
descriptions, and we ask them ifthey're comfortable with that.
And we also pray in meetings andwe pray over our wheelchair
recipients and we work withpartners that are very
religious, and we obviouslyattract people in our supporter
(43:49):
base and stakeholders that arevery religious.
SPEAKER_03 (43:52):
Today on Amazing Greats, I'm talking with Nuka
Hart, the CEO of Free WheelchairMission, who's bringing mobility
and hope to people around theworld.
You do that as a group, so thethe the team is all together in
those scenarios?
SPEAKER_01 (44:08):
When we distribute wheelchairs, you mean?
SPEAKER_03 (44:10):
No, no, when you you you pray for your your uh
wheelchair recipients.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:16):
So there's lots of different ways we pray at free
wheelchair mission.
We have uh let's call it themodern way of praying, which is
we have an instant messagingchannel on Slack where we have a
prayer group going and we postour prayers in the Slack channel
and share.
It could be a prayer for arecipient that we hear about, a
(44:37):
distribution partner is facing achallenge, a team member that
needs prayer or a praise report.
We have our board of directorsthat pray together once a month
to pray for all of these thingsI just listed and more.
They are required to beChristians.
It is a requirement of our boardthat they sign a statement of
faith.
(44:58):
And then in meetings, you know,depending on the meeting, right?
It could be a small teammeeting, a leadership meeting,
it could be a group meeting.
We'll break off in prayer.
And sometimes we are praying forwe, you know, in the prayer, we
mention our wheelchairrecipients, but we're also
praying for our partners.
We thank God for the countrywe're in, we thank God for our
safety because we're going inall these weird places, right?
(45:18):
So there's lots of prayers, andsometimes it's very, please God,
let the resources come so we cankeep doing this work.
SPEAKER_03 (45:24):
And where do the resources come from primarily?
Is it individuals or bigcorporations or yeah, we have a
variety of places that they comefrom, different segments.
SPEAKER_01 (45:35):
I'm really proud that the majority of our funds
come from individuals.
I think I'm proud of thatbecause we're less dependent on
principally institutionalgiving, which could come and go
depending on economies orchanges with the wind
politically, that sort of thing.
So we do depend a lot onhouseholds, individuals, but we
(45:56):
do have a core of support fromcorporations, from churches, and
from foundations or privatefoundations.
We've we don't receive anygovernment grants or government
funds.
That's not new, that's just beenthe way it's been.
It's been our little policy, andI'm kind of grateful.
Because then with the windflowing one way or the other,
(46:19):
you don't have to be dependenton that to a point where it's
detrimental to your plans if itchanges.
And our supporters are all overthe world, and that's a
beautiful thing, predominantly,obviously, in the United States,
because of where we started, butuh we have support from all over
the world.
SPEAKER_03 (46:38):
You know what I love about um the way you generate
revenue and a lot of it and theway and what you desire to is
the fact that uh it is soaccessible to anyone to be a
participant uh when you considerthat a wheelchair costs in the
neighborhood of a hundred bucks.
So everybody's got a hundredbucks to put somebody in a
(47:01):
wheelchair.
And what a great, wonderfulthing to feel proud about for a
donor.
SPEAKER_01 (47:07):
And even if they don't have a hundred bucks, they
may have a dollar, right?
SPEAKER_02 (47:13):
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (47:14):
And I tell people all the time I would prefer to
have a million people giving meone dollar than to have one man
or woman giving me a milliondollar check.
Because if I can move onemillion people to give me one
dollar, that means one millionpeople cured enough to part with
that one dollar for me and whatI'm trying to achieve and what
(47:35):
I'm just introducing them to.
And then it won't be about me,it's about the mission.
SPEAKER_03 (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, perfect.
And so that's at this magicmoment, we should say, how how
do we do that?
How do we do that?
SPEAKER_01 (47:47):
How do you do that?
Well, you know, there's thisthing called the internet these
days.
SPEAKER_03 (47:52):
I love that internet.
It's so good.
SPEAKER_01 (47:54):
So I tell people, look us up and see if you like
us, right?
Read our stories, watch ourvideos, go to our website, go to
our social media pages.
And when you go there, I'mconvicted that you're going to
feel tugged at the heart andmotivated to give or do
something.
And so they should then act withthat and go to that donate
(48:16):
button and give, or feelinspired enough to engage with
us in a different way as well tosee how they can volunteer,
participate in an event, and domore.
Introduce us to someone or justlearn about our new ideas like
our new wheelchair that we'vejust launched or anything else.
SPEAKER_03 (48:34):
Well, Nuka, this has been absolutely an inspiring and
wonderful story, and the timethat you've spent, and the
energy that you put into it, andthe glow in your face when you
talk about what you're doing isjust magical.
And I really appreciate thetime.
But we ran out of time.
You said 40 minutes.
I hope we can talk 40 past 40minutes, right?
SPEAKER_01 (48:55):
That's quick.
I love it.
Thanks so much, folks.
SPEAKER_03 (48:58):
What an uplifting conversation with Luca Hart.
Her story reminds us howpowerful faith and action can
be.
The website address to find outmore about Free Wheelchair
Missions iswww.freewheelchairmissions.org.
Thanks for hanging out with uson AmazingGreats, and we'll see
(49:19):
you next time with another storyof God at work.
Hi everyone, I'm Jim Zorn.
Earlier this year, I went to theDominican Republic with free
wheelchair missions.
I took a few baseballs that theMariners gave to me signed by
Julio Rodriguez, who's from theDominican.
We went all around deliveringfree wheelchairs.
SPEAKER_03 (00:18):
Hey there, Rick Hansen here, your host of great
with the amazing free wheelchairmission.
(01:06):
And it's such a great cause, andI really appreciate your
knocking out some time to talkwith us on Amazing GREATES.
Uh you know, the wonderful thingabout your mission is you kind
of tell us the wholeorganization's story in three
words.
Free wheelchair mission.
Okay, that's what it is.
But let's dig deeper than that.
(01:27):
Uh, first of all, welcome andthank you for being here.
This will be fun.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you to your subscribersand loyal listeners for caring
to listen.
SPEAKER_03 (01:38):
Cool, cool, cool.
So is it for daring to listen?
Is that what you said?
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
We all have so many choices and options, right,
nowadays.
And I and I always thank peoplefor their time because it's so
precious.
SPEAKER_03 (01:51):
Yeah, yeah, no kidding.
Well, so this, so uh FreedomWheelchair mission started 24
years ago.
Right.
And you weren't involved then.
But can you give us a littlesnippet of uh the founding story
uh behind the idea?
First of all, I I gotta say thatum I thought when I heard the
name, and you know, just in mymind, I was thinking, well, you
(02:12):
guys buy wheelchairs and thenyou distribute them.
That's your job is distributingthem.
But it's a whole lot more thanthat, too.
And I want to get into the depthof what it's all about.
SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
How it all works, right?
Okay.
Well, yes, you're right.
It started long before I cameon.
I just have only been here foreight years, but 24 years ago,
it started from our founder, DonSchorndorfer, a biomedical
engineer with the biggest,biggest heart and a boatload of
humility and love for God,answering a calling that he had
(02:46):
to do something with his talentsto solve a problem.
And it was a problem that he sawwhen he was on a trip many years
before that with his late wife.
And the problem was findingsomebody on the ground crawling
in need of an assistive devicelike a wheelchair.
And I tell people he couldn'tunsee that vision that he saw
(03:06):
when he was on vacation.
And he dedicated some time toacting and doing something about
it, using his talents as anengineer to innovate for a
solution, to find a wheelchairthat could be created in a
cost-effective manner, thatcould be made durably, that
could then be sent out as adesign to developing countries
(03:31):
and potentially governments andother entities to solve the
problem of disability wherepeople need a wheelchair and
don't have an access to one.
The overwhelming problem withwheelchairs in the world is an
estimate that the World HealthOrganization has that there are
80 million people at any giventime that need a wheelchair, and
(03:52):
the vast majority do not haveaccess.
So, what Don was trying toachieve was finding a solution
that was cost-effective thatwould cut into that number.
What he didn't realize, andwhere he answered God's call,
was that it was really about himcreating the wheelchair and not
selling the patent or thedesign, but creating an
organization that would make anduse that design, make the
(04:16):
wheelchairs, as you said, andthen give them out en masse for
free to nations, to NGOs, toindividuals all over the world
that are in need.
And that's what we've done fromthe very beginning.
It started with the very firstwheelchair we gave out in India.
And now, 24 years later, we'vegiven out 1.5 million
(04:40):
wheelchairs.
We've touched 95 countries.
And I tell people that Ibelieve, and I mean, there's
some data that potentially showsthis that we probably have given
out or give out the mostwheelchairs per year of any
other nonprofit that exclusivelyfocuses on wheelchair
distribution.
(05:00):
So we're very proud of that.
And the way we do it, as youdescribed, is to manufacture the
wheelchairs through our twofactories that we have, and then
to distribute them unassembledin boxes in container shipments
to different partners all overthe world.
Then we train our partners as tohow to assemble the wheelchairs,
(05:25):
how to assess the recipients ofthe wheelchairs, and then we
tell them it would be ourgreatest honor and privilege to
be able to share the messagethat the individuals who are
receiving these wheelchairs areloved by God and are not to be
forgotten, that they aredeserving of his love and they
shouldn't be cast aside, andthat the wheelchair is our
(05:46):
privilege to be able to give tothem and to their families.
And that's how it all works.
SPEAKER_03 (05:56):
We had a we have a pretty massively big God, and he
expects us to uh do big thingswith his gifts, and certainly uh
that little seed of a design uhblossomed into this uh amazing
manufacturing situation thatyou're doing today, which is
incredible.
So was he handling this wholething by himself back in the
(06:16):
day, or did he have a help, orhow did that go?
SPEAKER_01 (06:19):
I tell people that free will transmission was kind
of like what we told we use theterminology now, startup, right?
I don't know if people use theword startup back in, you know,
24 years ago, but it was aglorified startup nonprofit.
It started in a man's garage,tinkering with everything from
white resin, plastic to uh steelto rubber.
(06:41):
And then he gathered friends,people from his church, people
that he knew that could help himto do all of the, you know, per
se grunt work, all the thingsthat it requires to run a
startup.
A startup in this case was anonprofit.
So everything from theaccounting to how are we going
to get people to take interest,how are we gonna ship these
things, where can we find afactory that would make these
things en masse?
(07:02):
And then it flourished fromthere.
Not Don even says that he got anonprofit for dummies book to
learn and educate himself.
Like most nonprofit uh or Iwould say startup leaders, you
know, there's a lot that yourecognize that you don't know,
right?
You may start out with a greatidea and you feel this calling,
but then very soon, especiallyif you've had a lot of success
(07:25):
and growth, you realize all thecomplexities of the execution
and the business model thatrequires other people to help
you to implement.
And Don quickly had to add tothe team and to add other people
to give him that advice.
So now, 24 years later, we nowhave a team of 40 people.
(07:46):
We're a full-fledged nonprofit.
There have been many iterationsof how we do it now that is
completely evolved.
And we've had many iterations ofour wheelchair that are not the
same original design any longer.
So we can touch on that.
But the nucleus of who we arehas not changed.
So, as you said, it's a freewheelchair mission.
(08:10):
And the driving reason, themotivation is that we're
motivated by God to do thiswork, to serve other people that
need to be lifted up in theirhearts and in their bodies with
a wheelchair.
And we give them a device thatis of good sound quality, but
made specifically for thedeveloping world in the way that
(08:33):
it's designed to handle andwithstand the terrain and the
variety of things that you seein those countries.
SPEAKER_03 (08:40):
I was hoping you were going to touch on that
because that's that's asignificant part.
It's not something you can justgo down to your local uh
wheelchair store and get.
It's something special for thesespecial environments that they
get placed into.
So that's great.
So now, how do you find uh waysto get these to the people that
need them most?
I mean, what's what's the thestructure that you have in place
(09:01):
to distribute?
SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Yeah, we have relied on, we learn this over time.
So this, I don't think, was thefirst, it wasn't the first idea,
right?
Again, start up with an idea andthen you learn as you go.
And over the years, we learnedthat the best model for us was
to rely on partners on theground in the countries where we
work.
Some of those partners could bewhat we call non-governmental
(09:25):
organizations, so NGOs.
In our model, it could beconsidered to be a
non-for-profit that's notaffiliated with the government.
And then some of them arechurches, some of them are
clinics or hospitals, butthey're all focused on serving
the people in their country.
Some of them work in multiplecountries, right?
They may be headquartered in theUnited States or in Europe, but
(09:49):
they do work in places wherethere's great need.
And they are the ones thatpartner with us contractually to
receive our wheelchairs and thento assess and find the people
that would be seated in ourwheelchairs.
So they are on the ground,they're either finding those
individuals through lists thatare waiting, long waiting lists
(10:11):
and clinics or hospitals ofindividuals who've been waiting
for that kind of a resource.
It could just be ground from thebaseline, grounds up uh
communication within a smallcommunity like a church or a
rotary club or alliance clubthat you see in these other
countries, even not just theUnited States, where people just
(10:34):
know that that man, that womandown the street had an accident,
had some sort of disability thatcreeped up, or just birthed a
child that will not be able towalk and will need a wheelchair
eventually.
And from there, they are able tobuild a list that then can be
served of individuals who willget our wheelchairs when they
(10:57):
arrive.
SPEAKER_03 (10:57):
Today on Amazing Greats, I'm talking with Nuka
Hart, the CEO of Free WheelchairMission, who's bringing mobility
and hope to people around theworld.
There's no way that it seemslike there because there's a
demand of 80 million people,you're always backed up.
I mean, is there always superdemand for everything that comes
out of the factory?
SPEAKER_01 (11:18):
Yeah, you know, the way we do our work is based
upon, like I said, thosepartnerships.
And those partnerships each havetheir limitations of capacity.
So even though they may havehigh need in their country, they
may only have so much that theycan handle and to distribute.
They may only have so manyvolunteers or staff, or just the
(11:40):
logistical complication of nothaving enough warehousing to
store the wheelchairs.
Or in a place like I visitedthis summer in Brazil, where we
were visiting in the Amazon,they're limited by climate and
the weather, right?
There's this finite amount oftime in that specific area of
that country where they can evendistribute.
(12:02):
So while the numbers ofpopulations might be high, it
really does require for thecapacity to be high on the
ground to actually get deliverthe product and to do it safely.
So it's not like distributingloaves of bread per se, right?
Which is extremely importantwork.
(12:23):
You have to feed people, right?
But you don't have to consideras much, unless they have a
gluten allergy, about um thingslike we do in the wheelchair
world around did we measurethem?
Did we size them correctly?
Did we teach them the exercisesthey need to do to be safe in
(12:44):
the wheelchair?
Did we consider if thewheelchair is the right solution
for them?
Are we going to do more harm byputting them in a wheelchair as
opposed to encouraging them touse their walker?
And is the wheelchair going tolast them for a long time if
they're five years old andthey're probably going to grow,
right?
From five years old to 15 to 25.
(13:07):
So those are all things that wetrain to and we have to worry
about with our partners and whyalso there's a you know a
capacity limitation and timelimitation, how it's executed.
But the prayer is that we will,you know, in get enough support
and be able to grow the capacitywith our partners so that we're
(13:31):
always increasing how manywheelchairs we give out and
supplying and supporting theseindividuals so that we create a
sustainable, you know,expectation of when the
wheelchairs will arrive so thatthe waiting lists are shorter,
even though we know the needwill always be there, but they
(13:52):
they know that they can expectto receive.
SPEAKER_03 (13:55):
Gotcha.
Well, you know, I have a specialuh heart for what you're doing
because I am involved in ourchurch uh with an event called
Night to Shine.
Are you familiar with?
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
I'm very familiar with that.
This is the Tim TebowFoundation.
And Tim Tebow actually spoke atone of our events many years
ago.
And the Night to Shine is aninitiative that one of our
distribution partners in Haiti,based in Kapaisia in the north
of Haiti, does every singleyear.
(14:27):
And I actually almostparticipated in that event.
It was when was it?
It was in 2024, just last yearin February.
And I missed it because of theunrest that happened in the
country that caused me, it was awhole explosion of problems, as
you may have heard, to have toleave there for my safety.
(14:50):
And I missed the event.
It's a fantastic event thatreally in what the way we are
part of it is because the peoplethat are our wheelchair
beneficiaries, the children, getdressed up and get to have the
beautiful experience of beinghighlighted for their beauty and
get to feel like the center ofattention with their TRs and
(15:12):
scepters, like a prom, right?
And um, it's wonderful becauseit shows a whole community that
people with disabilities shouldbe heralded, they have their own
inner and outer beauty, and theyshould not be marginalized but
made to feel special.
So I just love that event.
SPEAKER_03 (15:32):
You're making me tear up over here.
It's like um, because it's sospecial for us, you know, and
and as you've described, um,once people understand what it
is, this night of you knowwonderful fun, um, everybody
wants to be involved.
Yeah.
And it's like this communityevent that it's it's it's
(15:53):
contagious.
SPEAKER_01 (15:54):
Even though I didn't get to go, I it was so much fun
in the days leading up to it tohelp make the tiaras for the
kids.
And I got to see, you know, whatthey had done the year before
and seeing the kids look atthemselves in the mirror and
never having seen themselves inthat way, right?
Dressed up a little bit andlooking outwardly more beautiful
(16:16):
than they expected that theywould ever look.
It's just it's amazing.
I love that.
SPEAKER_03 (16:20):
Yeah, yeah.
So let's jump into your storybecause you know you've been uh
you've been leading this umcharge for uh the last eight
years.
Is that what you said?
So um how is it first of all?
You're you're you're let's go inthe way back machine.
SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
Oh boy, no, no telling ages, please.
SPEAKER_03 (16:46):
So so tell us um childhood.
Did you grow up in a Christianhousehold?
SPEAKER_01 (16:50):
I did.
I grew up in a Christianimmigrant household.
I'm first generation American.
I was born on the East Coast inNew York.
My parents immigrated fromHaiti.
We talked about Haitian Night toShine, but that's where they
came from.
They met in the States.
They had me in New York.
They came to the United Stateslike most immigrants do for
(17:12):
opportunity.
And they became citizens and hadme, and they were both in the
medical profession.
My parents are both doctors.
And so it's kind of wild thatI'm now working for an
organization that deals withpatients and mobility issues.
It's as close as I could get tobeing uh in their in their
(17:34):
world.
And they're both passed on now,but I did grow up in a Christian
household, and I, you know, itwas it is part of a lot of the
Haitian culture.
I know there are other, youknow, types of faith in Haiti,
predominantly Catholic in Haiti.
There is a part of uh alsoProtestant that has grown over
(17:57):
the years, but I grew up fromthe very beginning going to
church every Sunday.
Uh, I was baptized, I did allthat stuff.
And my mom died when I wasreally young.
My dad did since then remarry,but because of that trauma, I
believe that my faith actuallygrew stronger because when you
(18:21):
go through something as a child,you have to grow up a lot
faster.
And I feel like the growing upprocess for those of us that
have been, you know, have hadfaith from a young age or grew
up in the church, part of ourprocess of growing up is, you
know, being introduced to faithstructure like church or Bible
(18:47):
study or vacation Bible study orprayers or scripture by our
parents.
And then making a consciousdecision at some point, there's
a fork in the road that happens,right?
Are you going to do what theysaid and follow what they were
teaching?
Or are you gonna go in adifferent direction?
(19:08):
And that other direction you goin, is it more religious, more
ingrained in faith, or is itcompletely different, right?
There is a point where itbecomes more about you know your
own choice and not thetechnically the indoctrination
of your parents, right?
Which and so for me, thatprocess happened earlier because
I believe I went throughsomething.
(19:30):
And I think for a lot of us whodon't go through something as a
young age, you do that throughyour normal cycle of growing.
It could be when you reachuniversity or you have your
first child, or you start tojust leave and cleave to
adulting, right?
So I've always had faith in theLord, I've always held on to
(19:51):
certain principles.
I found myself on my knees froma very young age, trying to
figure out why things happenedto me the way they did, and
holding on to words like hopeand you know, trying to not be
anxious about my situation.
And I think that's what'scarried me through to this day
(20:13):
now.
I think when you go through atrauma when you're a young
child, it's can completelychange your trajectory of your
life.
But I believe that my faithsustained me.
And I also think it's a littlebit of the way I'm wired as a
Haitian woman or Haitiandescent.
Um, it's the way I was raised tobe very resilient and to not
(20:36):
only think about myself, thatthere are bigger problems,
bigger issues out there.
And it's what I think that is atrajectory that I was on as well
with my career, that it's notall about me.
It's about the work that I'mdoing and what I can do to give
back using my talent.
SPEAKER_03 (20:54):
If I'm hearing you right, so there was it a gradual
kind of maturing, or was there apivotal moment?
Was there a time where you said,you know, now I know this is
real, now I know Jesuspersonally.
Some people have that, othersnot necessarily.
They just kind of into it.
What was your situation?
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
You know, when you lose your mom when you're seven
years old, you kind of I mean, Ia lot of people can't even
fathom that, right?
But there's definitely a momentof why God did this happen to
me, right?
Why me, why me, why me, which isI think a nor normal inclination
for any child as I look at it asan adult.
And so there definitely wasthat.
(21:34):
And then there was a lot offear, right?
Because I came to face somethingthat really roots us in our
faith, which is our mortality.
And what does it mean to thenthink beyond the to the now and
the earth?
It's about the forever and theeverlasting, which is your
relationship with God, right?
And so I was forced to thinkabout that earlier because here
(21:56):
I am faced with a person who'snever supposed to go away, my
mom going away and in a weirdway, right?
Like, you know, she had adisease, something happened, and
now she's gone, this vibrantperson.
So I think that was a pivotalmoment, but it was still encased
in some fear and unsurety.
There was another pivotal momentfor me, which was when I had my
(22:20):
first child, and I would, Iremember I had just birthed my
child, and I'm sitting there inthe uh hospital with the little,
I guess, a little bed they giveyou.
At the time, it was like thisclear, uh, kind of like a
bassinet box, and the baby'snext to you, and it was at some
(22:40):
ungodly hour of like four in themorning, and I'm looking at this
baby.
I'm sitting in the in the bed,and my husband at the time was
either snoring on the futon nextto me in the hospital room or
gone, and I'm just looking atthe baby, and I'm thinking, oh
my goodness, I'm responsible forthis child.
And then I remember tearsstreaming down my face and me
(23:02):
realizing what my mom must havefelt like leaving, knowing that
she was dying and knowing thatshe was leaving behind two
children.
And that's when God and I hadanother pivotal conversation
about mortality and what I washere to do and him being here.
(23:24):
And it was earth-shattering tome because again, backwards to
seven years old, why me, why Goddid this happen?
To now I understand like it'snot about me.
This woman who was my mom had toleave me behind.
So it's really about whathappened to her and the reality
that she had to go through.
Oh my goodness, why Lord, isthis happening?
(23:46):
I'm having to leave behind twochildren.
Because then I got to see itfrom her eyes.
And I also got to haveThanksgiving in that moment as
well, of thanking God forbringing me to a moment to be
able to experience that.
Because I could have never had achild, right?
But I got to experience thebeauty of having a children.
And there are other couple ofmoments, but that's when I
(24:06):
recognized that I really needhim.
I, if I'm gonna be a good momand I'm gonna survive in this
world for this child, because mygoal then became, I became I am
going to last more than sevenyears into this child's life,
right?
I need to pray to him all thetime because I need to make it
for this child, because I don'twant for this child to deal with
(24:30):
what I dealt with in terms ofnot having my mom there.
And so that was a huge momentfor me.
There are others, even for mecoming to Free Will Tremission,
the day that I decided to, youknow, go forth and answer his
call to be in this capacity asleading the organization.
So I could go on and on.
You don't have all the hours inthe day, Rick, to talk about my
(24:52):
faith journeys.
Faith journeys are there,they're never a uh there's no
end.
They're you're constantlyworking on them, right?
SPEAKER_03 (25:01):
We're talking with Nuka Hart, a leader whose faith
is driving a mission totransform lives one wheelchair
at a time.
Tell me, uh, how old's your is ason, right?
Was your child or son?
How old is he now?
SPEAKER_01 (25:14):
26.
SPEAKER_03 (25:15):
26.
How cool is that, huh?
Well, I that so in yourspiritual journey, um, there are
certain practices that groundyou, that keep you connected
with Jesus.
For you in your life, what whatare those spiritual practices
that are a part of your life?
SPEAKER_01 (25:33):
My number one practice, number one practice,
and it requires a lot ofdiscipline, is praying with my
husband every morning.
I do two things.
It's like a very personal thinghere that I'm sharing.
SPEAKER_03 (25:47):
I don't know why I'm sharing this because I don't
really go to your job.
SPEAKER_01 (25:52):
So I actually I'm the early riser, and now that
we're empty nesters, you know,we don't have to go and bottle
feed or, you know, pick up ababy and change a diaper, right?
So in the quiet of the morning,I usually wake up and I thank
God before he wakes up and Ilook at him because I thank him
(26:12):
for him, right?
I thank the Lord for my husbandand I thank the Lord for
allowing me to wake up.
I have more awareness of whatit, the value of waking up and
the importance of that than Ithink a lot of people do because
of what I went through as achild.
And I identified that wayearlier.
Some people can think of it asmorbid, but I think of it as a
(26:34):
Thanksgiving.
So that's the first thing I do.
It's just a very, it's a verysimple, thank you, God, you
know.
And then the next thing I do isI wake him up, you know, and we
assess like what our day isgoing to be.
And as long as we don't have todash, dash, dash, I try my very
best to spend at least five toten minutes with him praying.
And we go through a specifictype of prayer that we do.
(26:58):
And it's a lot of intentionsthat we're speaking in terms of
needs for others in our familythat we know are struggling or
dealing with something, ourchildren, our extended family,
and our friends, and for eachother.
So that's something that I feelis a constant.
And I feel really bad when Imiss it or when we're in
(27:21):
different time zones and I missit.
But that is one of the thebiggest practices that I have
integrated into my life thatgrounds me.
SPEAKER_03 (27:30):
So your husband's alarm clock for starters, which
is one.
SPEAKER_01 (27:34):
Whether he likes it or not.
SPEAKER_03 (27:35):
Whether he likes it or not, which is great.
So what happens?
You travel a lot.
So what happens on those uhthose mornings?
SPEAKER_01 (27:42):
Sometimes we call each other, you know, and
sometimes we do the prayer atanother time of the day.
I've been known to pray with himwhile I'm driving somewhere.
We ask each other, is theresomething you want me to pray
about?
And that sort of thing.
And we're pretty good about it.
You know, we have our favoritescripture, of course, that we
mutually love.
And this is my second marriageand his as well.
(28:03):
So I think there's somethingvery beautiful about that too,
because we have a deeperappreciation for the fact that
the Lord is about multiplechances, right?
And hopefully you don't have todo that in marriage because the
idea of marriage is for it tonot be a multiple chance giving
thing that you do it for life.
(28:24):
But when the circumstances bearto be that, that he does give
you that grace is a big deal.
So we don't take it for granted.
What's the scripture that it'sPhilippians 4, 6?
SPEAKER_03 (28:36):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (28:36):
It's about not being anxious.
It's all about it ties togetherwhat I was talking about before.
It's not, it's it's about notbeing anxious and putting and
giving all your petitions forThanksgiving and your requests
to God.
SPEAKER_03 (28:49):
So challenges.
Uh uh, we've you you've alreadyexplained a couple of them.
Uh, what other challenges?
Maybe uh your career challenges,things where along the way uh it
seemed like things weren't goingthe right way.
Yeah.
And you weren't you're temptedto think that God wasn't
listening somehow.
Tell me about one of thosesituations.
SPEAKER_01 (29:10):
Oh goodness.
I think all leaders have that,or all people in any, you don't
have to be in a leadershipcapacity.
You wonder, am I in the rightplace?
Should I be doing somethingelse?
Is it grass greener somewhereelse?
You know, am I feeling valued?
You definitely have those innervoices, right?
And your career is so critical,right?
It's the thing that you do inthe majority of your awake
(29:33):
hours, your alert hours whenyou're alive on this planet.
So you better be doing somethingthat you enjoy or that you find
to be meaningful.
Uh, I think that for me, theredefinitely was, you know, I was
working at another organizationbefore that I felt I was making
a big impact with, but I was alittle antsy.
(29:55):
I wasn't sure about whether ornot it was time for me to stay.
Or go.
SPEAKER_03 (30:01):
That was United Way, right?
SPEAKER_01 (30:03):
I had a leadership position.
I felt that I had an amazingteam, an amazing, amazing team.
I loved my team.
It's one of those things thatyou say, Am I am I happy?
Am I not?
You know, and there weredefinitely ups and downs there.
But what was tugging at my heartwas the fact that I wasn't doing
enough.
(30:24):
You know, I felt like I hadshown and demonstrated that I
could raise funds and do thatwell for the initiative where I
was the areas where I wasliving.
But I, because of my heritage,felt a bit guilty that I wasn't
doing enough for Haiti and othercountries around the world that
I felt were suffering more.
And so when I was recruited forfree will transmission, I kind
(30:48):
of felt like I had a potentialto do something more through
free will transmission.
I thought, well, maybe this isit.
But honestly, Rick, it waswheelchairs.
What did I know aboutwheelchairs?
Right.
And how come I hadn't heard thisorganization before?
And why would they want me?
And also their headquarters wasso far from where I lived.
Why would I go there?
(31:09):
And I still went on theinterview.
There's a lot of reasons why Idid that that I won't go into.
It's a whole other story.
But by the time I finished thegrueling interview, I walked
away after kind of beingvoluntole to go on this
interview, wanting the job andpassionately wanting the job.
(31:31):
Like the minute I got in thecar, I said to myself, Oh God,
what am I going to do?
I mean, I said it out loud.
Oh God, what am I going to do?
I really want this job.
I'm sitting in the car bymyself, going up the freeway
back home.
And within 20 minutes, 15minutes, something like that,
the recruiter called me andsaid, They want you to come
back.
When you can you come back?
(31:53):
And I knew, I knew it.
I knew it even before he called.
I said, you know, that was areally hard interview, but I
just had this feeling they wantme.
And what am I going to do?
Like, I did not expect that Iwas leaving this job now.
And it was really interestingbecause here I am feeling that
feeling of, well, you know, whatshould I do?
Is this right?
(32:14):
Am I not sure?
Blah, blah, blah.
And God just laid it out for mein this mysterious way,
unexpected way.
And he kind of forced my handand made it abundantly clear.
And then I gave tons of notice.
I think I gave like two months,three months notice, something
like that, because this was allin like November or something.
(32:35):
And I started February 1st,eight years ago.
And here I am.
And the complexity of leading anorganization that was
founder-led, which a lot ofpeople do, right?
They take over for a founder.
And it's not easy to do that,right?
And I knew it from the beginningthat that's what I was taking
(32:55):
on, has had its ups and downs.
SPEAKER_03 (32:58):
Rick Hansen here on Amazing Greats with Nuka Hart,
who shares her journey offollowing God's calling to serve
the most vulnerable around theworld.
So you were the first CEO.
You took over for Don.
SPEAKER_01 (33:10):
Yeah, I took over for Don.
Technically, there were twoother executive directors
preceding me, and they didn'tlast for a long time for one
reason or another.
They were there for a shorttime.
And then Don went back intoleadership for the organization
for a couple of years.
And, you know, he said to me, Iwas a little nervous about
(33:34):
bringing somebody else in again.
You know, I knew all of thatgoing in, which I really,
really, really appreciate.
It's the worst thing when youget a job, you take on a job,
and nobody tells you, you know,all of the things behind the
door, behind door number one,two, three, and four, right?
And so I was told that it wouldbe new.
(33:56):
It would be new for the team, itwould be new for Don, and it
would be new for our supportersto have somebody other than Don
leading.
And also, people would be alittle skittish about whether or
not it was going to work becauseit didn't always work before.
So that was a big undertaking.
And Don is a fantastic person.
(34:17):
So also bringing on a newindividual with new ideas, a
woman, you know, coming from adifferent background, all of
these things could also becomplex, right?
But I've had from the beginninghis trust.
And yes, we've gone through ourups and downs, but I've had his
trust, the leadership's trust interms of our board of directors.
(34:40):
And over time, I've, you know,built the trust of the team.
I hope I've earned it.
And I hope I've earned the trustof our supporters.
And I hope I'm showing them thatwhat I called before the nucleus
of what free will transmissionis, the essence of it is still
important and vital for us tomaintain.
While we may hone it a littlebit differently, and we may
(35:06):
evolve in some regards to bemore efficient or cost effective
or embracing the times we're in,keeping true to the values and
maintaining the integrity of themission has been my personal
mission and my promise to Don.
SPEAKER_03 (35:23):
Stepping back just one step here, because I'm I'm
always intrigued by uh how Godspeaks to people.
And you said that was a that wasa clear indication at that time
was is there an audible voicefor you, or is it just like a
knowing?
Uh how do you experience thecall of God?
SPEAKER_01 (35:41):
Well, I have an art background.
I studied art, so I have a lotof visuals in my brain.
Visuals, as they say my firstlanguage in French, tableaus,
right?
Tableau.
Like I see things in imagery inthe way I think.
My husband tells me, Your dreamsare so colorful.
(36:02):
You know, when I tell him abouta dream I have.
So when I think about what Godsays to me, I don't think about
it just in words, but I think ofit in like paintings and
pictures.
SPEAKER_02 (36:12):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (36:12):
And I sometimes look for signs.
I used to like even look at animage of my mom, and I used to
say, God, move her eyes so thatI could know whether or not it's
and of course the eyes wouldnever move, right?
But yeah, I mean, I do I do havethe audibles, and I told you
about one when I was in that inthat uh car coming up the
(36:38):
freeway, and I feel like it wasvery clear, and I was having a
conversation saying, Oh god, ohgod, I really want this job.
And then all of a sudden thephone rings, right?
And I felt like you know, youcan call it a sign, you could,
you know, you can call it thatGod made the phone ring, you
know, whatever you want to say,every people will poke at that.
But I'll tell you, I was notexpecting to work at a
(37:00):
wheelchair, predominantlywheelchair-focused nonprofit in
Orange County in headquartersand touching global, having a
global reach that I neverexpected.
God did that, right?
Yeah, and I certainly wasn'texpecting that the very first
wheelchair that I gave out, Ican tell you that story.
SPEAKER_03 (37:20):
Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_01 (37:22):
Was in Haiti.
And I, you know, people wouldsay, Well, of course you gave it
out in Haiti, it's your likecountry of heritage.
And I would say, actually, I wassupposed to give out my first
wheelchair in Vietnam because atthe time that was our number one
country that we weredistributing in.
And that was the plan.
Like after I had been here for10 months or something, nine
months, and sinking my teethinto the mission that I would
(37:44):
finally go out in the field andsee the work.
And we planned the trip.
And I can't recall whathappened, but something
happened.
We had to cancel the trip.
Something with the partner,maybe it was weather.
I completely I'm blanking.
And I was a little bit dismayedand frustrated.
Oh, darn, I needed to see thispartner.
And I remember meeting with Don.
(38:05):
We were meeting, you know,one-on-one one day, and he says,
When are you gonna get outthere?
When are you gonna get out thereand see the work?
And I said, I don't know.
This trip for Vietnam, it gotcanceled and blah, blah, blah.
And he looked at me, he's like,just get on a plane and go to
another country then.
And I just looked at him, Isaid, Oh, right, I'm leading
(38:26):
this organization.
I guess I could kind of do that.
And he said, Where do you wantto go?
Why don't you go to Haiti?
That's where, you know, andthat's how it happened.
And so I went to Haiti and weorganized this trip for me to
have a solo trip to meet ouramazing partner, Food for the
Poor, there in the Capitol.
At the time, it was a lot saferthan it is today.
(38:47):
And my first wheelchair I gaveout was to a boy who had
suffered tragically the loss ofhis leg in the earthquake that
happened in 2010.
So now I'm getting to him in2018, eight years later, where
he had waited for eight years toreceive a wheelchair.
(39:11):
He had an amputation, he hadbeen walking around using
crutches exclusively forcrawling, right?
Dragging himself.
(39:34):
So they lived in a really youknow hard part of the capital.
And here I am seeing this as thefirst child, I first person I
get to put in a wheelchair.
And it just was another Godmoment because I'm like, oh my
gosh, if my parents hadimmigrated, I could, I could
(39:56):
have been his mother, right?
Like, what would be thedifference between me and that
mother, right?
Not much.
He came home from school like mykids do at four o'clock, and
then this earthquake hit, andboom, this his life changed.
There's no difference between anearthquake happening in
California, where I live, andthis mom in Haiti.
(40:18):
And the big difference only isthe lack of resource and the
challenge that there was in theinfrastructure in that country.
So it was a beautiful moment forme.
And then I went to visit my dearsweet cousin and his wife, who
live there.
And I remember showing them thephoto of this young man that
(40:40):
day.
And they asked me, where wereyou when you gave this
wheelchair?
And I explained it.
And his wife, I'll never forgetit.
She says, Wait, I know that boy.
I said, What?
She says, I see him going to andfrom school all the time because
it's on my way to work.
(41:01):
And she described him to tea,and it was just so affirming.
And then they affirmed whereour, you know, where what are
the work our partner's doingthere?
So it's just, it was a fullcircle moment.
I had such pride that I was ableto demonstrate the impact that
we're making in a visual way forthem, for something that they
(41:23):
had suffered trauma as well inhaving been a part of that time
of the earthquake in Haiti.
And I think, I think they wereproud of me that I did that
work.
And yeah, that was a big moment.
SPEAKER_03 (41:39):
Yeah, and now there's uh 1.5 million of those
moments around the world.
And you're in charge.
You're the one that's kind ofmaking it all happen.
SPEAKER_01 (41:49):
Well, I I will say you and your team, let's say
that 1 million percent, Rick.
Because I tell them it's notabout me and it's not about Don.
I tell them all the time.
Some of them I roll me, I know.
I tell them all the time, it'snot about the missionary, it's
about the mission.
We need to work together and weneed to do our work so well that
(42:13):
we aren't the entity that'snecessary for the work to take
place.
So my job is to bring them alltogether, to figure out ways
strategically for them to workeffectively, to challenge, to
push, but I am reliant on themto execute, to come up with
ideas, to push me a little,right?
And to make it happen.
(42:36):
I need to know that that'shappening and that I'm not
required for that to happen.
I'm not doing my job well if I'mnecessary.
SPEAKER_03 (42:45):
Wow.
That's a great uh that's a greatidea.
I hadn't heard it put quite thatway before, but that's
incredible.
So of the team, how many I mean,is everybody Christian or are
they kind of Christian-ish, orhow does all of that fit into
technically?
SPEAKER_01 (43:02):
I have no idea.
SPEAKER_03 (43:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
So we're not a church, we're faith-based, so we
do not have a litmus test orrequirement, and we can't
legally for Christianish,Christian, not Christian, but
everybody has their eyes wideopen that our mission is
faith-based, that we have amotivation to do this work, that
(43:26):
is Jesus.
It's in our faith missionstatement.
And we're very transparent withpeople about that in job
descriptions, and we ask them ifthey're comfortable with that.
And we also pray in meetings andwe pray over our wheelchair
recipients and we work withpartners that are very
religious, and we obviouslyattract people in our supporter
(43:49):
base and stakeholders that arevery religious.
SPEAKER_03 (43:52):
Today on Amazing Greats, I'm talking with Nuka
Hart, the CEO of Free WheelchairMission, who's bringing mobility
and hope to people around theworld.
You do that as a group, so thethe the team is all together in
those scenarios?
SPEAKER_01 (44:08):
When we distribute wheelchairs, you mean?
SPEAKER_03 (44:10):
No, no, when you you you pray for your your uh
wheelchair recipients.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:16):
So there's lots of different ways we pray at free
wheelchair mission.
We have uh let's call it themodern way of praying, which is
we have an instant messagingchannel on Slack where we have a
prayer group going and we postour prayers in the Slack channel
and share.
It could be a prayer for arecipient that we hear about, a
(44:37):
distribution partner is facing achallenge, a team member that
needs prayer or a praise report.
We have our board of directorsthat pray together once a month
to pray for all of these thingsI just listed and more.
They are required to beChristians.
It is a requirement of our boardthat they sign a statement of
faith.
(44:58):
And then in meetings, you know,depending on the meeting, right?
It could be a small teammeeting, a leadership meeting,
it could be a group meeting.
We'll break off in prayer.
And sometimes we are praying forwe, you know, in the prayer, we
mention our wheelchairrecipients, but we're also
praying for our partners.
We thank God for the countrywe're in, we thank God for our
safety because we're going inall these weird places, right?
(45:18):
So there's lots of prayers, andsometimes it's very, please God,
let the resources come so we cankeep doing this work.
SPEAKER_03 (45:24):
And where do the resources come from primarily?
Is it individuals or bigcorporations or yeah, we have a
variety of places that they comefrom, different segments.
SPEAKER_01 (45:35):
I'm really proud that the majority of our funds
come from individuals.
I think I'm proud of thatbecause we're less dependent on
principally institutionalgiving, which could come and go
depending on economies orchanges with the wind
politically, that sort of thing.
So we do depend a lot onhouseholds, individuals, but we
(45:56):
do have a core of support fromcorporations, from churches, and
from foundations or privatefoundations.
We've we don't receive anygovernment grants or government
funds.
That's not new, that's just beenthe way it's been.
It's been our little policy, andI'm kind of grateful.
Because then with the windflowing one way or the other,
(46:19):
you don't have to be dependenton that to a point where it's
detrimental to your plans if itchanges.
And our supporters are all overthe world, and that's a
beautiful thing, predominantly,obviously, in the United States,
because of where we started, butuh we have support from all over
the world.
SPEAKER_03 (46:38):
You know what I love about um the way you generate
revenue and a lot of it and theway and what you desire to is
the fact that uh it is soaccessible to anyone to be a
participant uh when you considerthat a wheelchair costs in the
neighborhood of a hundred bucks.
So everybody's got a hundredbucks to put somebody in a
(47:01):
wheelchair.
And what a great, wonderfulthing to feel proud about for a
donor.
SPEAKER_01 (47:07):
And even if they don't have a hundred bucks, they
may have a dollar, right?
SPEAKER_02 (47:13):
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (47:14):
And I tell people all the time I would prefer to
have a million people giving meone dollar than to have one man
or woman giving me a milliondollar check.
Because if I can move onemillion people to give me one
dollar, that means one millionpeople cured enough to part with
that one dollar for me and whatI'm trying to achieve and what
(47:35):
I'm just introducing them to.
And then it won't be about me,it's about the mission.
SPEAKER_03 (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, perfect.
And so that's at this magicmoment, we should say, how how
do we do that?
How do we do that?
SPEAKER_01 (47:47):
How do you do that?
Well, you know, there's thisthing called the internet these
days.
SPEAKER_03 (47:52):
I love that internet.
It's so good.
SPEAKER_01 (47:54):
So I tell people, look us up and see if you like
us, right?
Read our stories, watch ourvideos, go to our website, go to
our social media pages.
And when you go there, I'mconvicted that you're going to
feel tugged at the heart andmotivated to give or do
something.
And so they should then act withthat and go to that donate
(48:16):
button and give, or feelinspired enough to engage with
us in a different way as well tosee how they can volunteer,
participate in an event, and domore.
Introduce us to someone or justlearn about our new ideas like
our new wheelchair that we'vejust launched or anything else.
SPEAKER_03 (48:34):
Well, Nuka, this has been absolutely an inspiring and
wonderful story, and the timethat you've spent, and the
energy that you put into it, andthe glow in your face when you
talk about what you're doing isjust magical.
And I really appreciate thetime.
But we ran out of time.
You said 40 minutes.
I hope we can talk 40 past 40minutes, right?
SPEAKER_01 (48:55):
That's quick.
I love it.
Thanks so much, folks.
SPEAKER_03 (48:58):
What an uplifting conversation with Luca Hart.
Her story reminds us howpowerful faith and action can
be.
The website address to find outmore about Free Wheelchair
Missions iswww.freewheelchairmissions.org.
Thanks for hanging out with uson AmazingGreats, and we'll see
(49:19):
you next time with another storyof God at work.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!