THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Family appeals for help after disabled schoolgirl wins calligraphy contest

Family appeals for help after disabled schoolgirl wins calligraphy contest

The family of a disable schoolgirl, who writes using her foot and has won a prize in a national-level Thai writing and calligraphy contest, has urged related agencies and kind-hearted people to provide help.

Mathayom 3 student Thikhamporn Mendoza, 17, from Laplae Sriwittaya School in Uttaradit’s Laplae district spends her free time helping her family to earn extra income to cover her father’s medical expenses related to his oral cancer, family members have said.
Thikhamporn, who was born with a nerve abnormality disfiguring her arm and leg bones, is one of three children of the half-Thai, half-Filipino Apollo Mendoza and his Thai wife Khunkrit Mendoza, who is a weekend market vendor. 
Despite the disability that makes her unable to walk or write with her hand, Thikhamporn is mobile in her wheelchair and uses her right foot to write. She can write beautifully in both Thai and English, her teachers said, leading her to be selected to represent the school at a recent Thai writing and calligraphy contest. 

Family appeals for help after disabled schoolgirl wins calligraphy contest
She won the second runner-up prize. 
She is also good at painting with her works also receiving awards, while she receives a GPA of 3.0 or greater every semester, teachers said.
Thikhamporn said she was lucky to have a caring and loving family so that she did no feel discouraged or inferior due to her disability, while her school also was supportive and did not view her physical challenge as a problem. 
When she has free time, she copies student assignments into report books for payment and sells keychains she makes at the market with her mother and on her online page “Meso Kores Dir” to earn extra income for her father’s medical bills and to save for her education. 
She said she wanted to become a computer programmer and product designer. 
The girl and her family urged kindhearted people to buy the key chains or provide other assistance. 

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