A Rayong 10-year-old has become a social-media sensation for taking over the role of family breadwinner by drawing pictures and selling them with artificial flowers at a Pattaya market.
Eakmongkol “Nong Miw” Samerpark, a fifth grader at Sriracha’s Samran Witthaya School, began selling his drawings and fake flowers on weekends at the Thepprasit second-hand market after his father was unable to work there due to a bad back.
Eakmongkol “Nong Miw” Samerpark, with his family in the background, sells a drawing and receives a donation at the Thepprasit second-hand market.
Nong Miw’s mother, Methinee Samerpark, is mentally disabled, his father, Suthep Somporn, 47, lot use of his legs in a work accident years ago and he has a 2-year-old sister to care for.
Suthep said that after he crippled his legs in an accident when working in a gem mine in Chanthaburi, he wandered about to sell artificial flowers, which earned him about 200 baht profit a day to feed his family. He also is a champion disabled petanque player.
Currently, he said, his family is living at a relative’s house on a rented piece of land in Rayong. They sometimes come to stay with another relative in Chonburi.
Recently, he suffered back pains and could not get around, so his son helps to sell the flowers and draw pictures for people who give him money. The boy has become the breadwinner in the family, instead of him.
Nong Miw said that once his story went viral on social media, more people have come to greet him and give him moral support. He said, in the future, he wants to be a musician and earn money for his family.
Anyone who wishing to help the boy and his family can call them at 098-517-3416 or donate money through his Bangkok Bank account 740-0-03990-0 under the name Eakmongkol Samerpark, Bangphra Branch, Sriracha.
