Kookkai Boonsaeng runs a model salon, writes ANCHALEE KONGRUT in Ubon Ratchathani

Kookkai Boonsaeng, 25, always dreamed of becoming a hairdresser and opening her own salon.

But a road accident 10 years ago, which left her in a wheelchair, appeared to have shattered her dreams.

She was hit by a truck while riding a bicycle into town, and her spinal cord was severely injured.

She had to quit school when she was in the second semester of Mathayom 3. She has been wheelchair-bound ever since.

However, Ms Kookkai taught herself the art of hairdressing and cut the hair of her family members and neighbours. At first she did it for free, but later her ''clients'' paid her five baht for the service.

She eventually rekindled her dream in 2006, when she was granted an audience with HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who paid a visit to a Border Patrol Police unit in her village.

''The Princess asked me what I wanted to do and I simply told her I dreamed of becoming a hairdresser,'' she said.

The next day she received a call from the provincial welfare office, telling her she had been accepted in a hairdressing training course at Thongpoon Paopanas Vocational Training Centre for the Disabled in Ubon Ratchathani's Muang district. She went there with three other disabled people.

Ms Kookkai now works at a pilot beauty salon at the centre almost seven days a week. She and other disabled people stay in the centre's welfare housing.

She is normally busy as most days there are at least 20 clients _ most of them loyal customers.

The centre allocates income to these trainees and also lets them manage the shop and finances.

Ms Kookkai earns about 3,000 baht a month and is saving up to open her own salon when she returns to her village, sometime this year.

She has just turned down an offer to work at a salon in the municipality.

''I want to own a shop. Besides, it is hard for disabled people to be with others,'' she said.

In Ubon Ratchathani municipality, there are five beauty salons owned and run by disabled people. Most of them received training from the centre.

Surachai Kittikosint, an official at the centre, said it opened in 1986 and has provided training for about 1,300 disabled people in Ubon Ratchathani and nearby provinces.

It is one of nine vocational training centres across the country which are run by the Bureau of Welfare Promotion and Protection of Children, Youth, the Disadvantaged, Persons with Disabilities and Older Persons, under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

Of the nine, four are in the Northeast, two in the central region, and there is one each in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Nakhon Si Thammarat.

There are now 744,543 disabled people registered with the ministry.

About 30% of them work individually selling lottery tickets, fixing electrical appliances or working as operators and staff at call centres for private companies.

According to the ministry, more disabled people are able to join the workforce as society has become more open to the disabled, who are also able to work as operators or programmers.

PWD Outsource Management Co is the first company owned by three wheelchair-bound people.

Opened on March 12, the firm operates a call centre for mobile phone service provider Hutch, on 1128.

All 50 of the staff members are disabled and some of them use their body parts, such as their chin or foot, to operate the computers. The company enjoys a tax break under the Disabled Persons Act 2007 which stipulates 100% tax exemption for companies of which 60% of the staff are disabled.

(Bangkok Post, March 24, 2008)