Ronald Honey trains people around the world on how to adjust and fit a wheelchair properly for someone who needs it.

Courtesy Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions

If you asked people around the world who've benefited from Ronald Honey's humanitarian efforts over the years, they'd probably agree that his last name is quite fitting.

For two decades, Honey has made life sweeter for hundreds of beneficiaries, including many with disabilities, from Eastern European countries to Asia and Africa.

Serving others is a passion for Honey, an occupational therapist who helps facilitate clinical experiences for students as an academic fieldwork coordinator at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo.

Since helping with relief efforts in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and visiting Indonesia to provide support in 2006, Honey has regularly participated in a variety of humanitarian projects. For the past 15 years, he has been an instrumental member of an impactful wheelchair program he helped develop with the philanthropic arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Every time I go on a trip, I come back with a renewed sense of gratitude for what I have. It's a privilege to be able to give back, to see the impact a small gesture can have and to feel like I'm making a difference," Honey said. "It's humbling to see people who have lived without access to mobility aids suddenly get the chance to change their lives."

Courtesy Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions

Before Honey's involvement, the church had simply shipped large quantities of donated wheelchairs to different areas of the world. The problem was the wheelchairs didn't always end up helping as many people as originally intended because they'd fall into the wrong hands or weren't properly fitted to meet the needs of the recipients.

Honey recognized ways in which the program could be improved, leading to a shift in how the donations were distributed and to more training for local partners and the people who receive the life-changing gifts. Just handing out the wheelchairs wasn't accomplishing as much good as they'd hoped.

During one humanitarian trip, Honey visited a remote hospital located high in the Nigerian mountains. He was approached by a mom who carried her 16-year-old daughter Grace for about 3 miles on her back from a bus stop.

"She'd never had a wheelchair for her and we were able to fit her in one," he said. "Her mom was just happy and Grace was happy. She loved it."

In his most recent trip to Zambia this year, Honey, who's recognized around the world as an expert instructor on wheelchair assessments and fittings, instructed local health care providers. He taught them wheelchair assessment techniques, proper fitting and how to make adjustments. His group provided 13 wheelchairs to Zambians with disabilities, essentially giving them a new lease on life through improved mobility and independence.

There are five distinct types of custom-manufactured wheelchairs that were designed and developed by Latter-day Saint Charities. The wheelchairs are distributed around the world for a variety of needs, Honey said. The distinct types include a standard manual wheelchair, an active wheelchair for people who require more mobility, a cross-terrain wheelchair for uneven environments, an all-terrain wheelchair and a positioning pediatric wheelchair.

Over the years, his team has conducted clinics, helping locals assemble and adjust the wheelchairs, which come in a kit form. They have trained hundreds of clinicians and technicians -- from Albania to Africa -- how to put the wheelchairs together, make adjustments and diagnose issues like pressure injuries.

Honey lit up while sharing the story of a 12-year-old boy in Zambia who received his first wheelchair this year. His goal wasn't just to give the boy with cognitive challenges a wheelchair to be pushed around in by caregivers -- he wanted the boy to learn how to use it himself.

"People said, 'Well, he can't push a wheelchair. He's just he's not cognitively intact,'" Honey recalled. "I worked with him for about an hour. He could push it around. He needed a little supervision, but he pretty much just was giggling and laughing the whole time."

Remembering the transformative moment, especially that sweet laughter and the boy's ability to wheel himself around, makes Honey smile.

"He loved it. It just changes their life. It changes their world and then it changes me," Honey said. "I'm grateful for what I have. I'm thankful that I can provide this for them. These are humble people and they don't have a lot. If I can give them just a little bit to change their life, that's what drives me."

Honey will never forget the story of a 70-year-old man he helped in Rwanda. Because of a congenital spinal injury, the man got around for decades by crawling. He wore flip-flops to protect his hands and used leather pads on his knees for protection from the hard ground.

While interviewing him in the clinic, Honey asked why he wanted a wheelchair. The man, who rarely left his house because of his mobility challenges, gave a simple and sincere answer.

"I want to go to church to pray and to see the children play in the playground," the man told him.

"That's what keeps me going," Honey said. "There are people out there that don't have access to those wheelchairs and they don't have the means and way to get one. He'd been getting around on his hands and knees for years."

As he does with every person who receives a wheelchair, Honey fitted the man in a wheelchair and modified it for his specific needs. He made it so the lower leg rest could be used like a step and made adjustments so the chair wouldn't tip easily. He then trained the man how to properly use the "rough rider" wheelchair, showing him how to navigate ramps and uneven terrain.

In the process, another life was changed for the better. "He was just so happy. He told me, 'This will open my world up,'" Honey said. "It made him independent again. He doesn't have to rely on people to take him anywhere."

Honey's roles have changed from therapist to trainer to logistical coordinator, but his heart for helping people achieve mobility, improved health and increased happiness remains constant.

"Every time I go on a trip, I come back with a renewed sense of gratitude for what I have," he said. "It's a privilege to be able to give back, to see the impact a small gesture can have and to feel like I'm making a difference."