Donate for a leg brace to enhance Nitaya's mobility

Nitaya’s ‘polio’ leg has developed deformities similar to osteoarthritis and her bent knee means she has has limited mobility and experiences pain walking and standing. This is debilitating and a serious obstacle to Nitaya’s daily life – she is a single mother, on a low income and with ongoing community work and responsibilities.

Nitaya Ueareeworakul is one of the co-founders and operators of the international women’s artist exchange program Womanifesto, from 1997 to the present. Today, Nitaya is one of the key curators and organisers of a survey exhibition called Womanifesto: Flowing Connections at Bangkok Art and Culture Center which opened on 12 September and continues until 30 December 2023.

As her fellow artists and friends, we are calling out through this campaign to raise funds for Nitaya to have a high-grade, light-weight, comfortable brace custom made for her. She needs to be able to wear shoes with the brace – her current brace does not allow her to wear a proper supportive shoe.

Nitaya met with her doctors and specialists at the Center of Excellent for Prosthetics and Orthotics (CEPO), Mahidol University Bangkok last month – September 2023.

The cost are as follows:
Materials and components, carbon-fibre brace (฿128,530.00) = AU$5,440
Travel and accommodation costs: four visits for consultations and fittings (฿20,000) = AU$848.00
2 pairs shoes, fitting and purchase AU$712
Total = AU$7000.00

Nitaya has lived with the polio since she was 17 months old, the youngest of a family of nine children. Using a cane to walk as a child, some relief came when Nitaya was in sixth grade with surgery on her right leg, carried out at Siriraj Hospital. She could walk, although with a limp, and has lived a creative life graduating from University, pursuing a career as an independent and community artist and representing Thailand internationally in both workshops and residencies.

Nitaya has so many plans she is passionate about seeing come to life. These include establishing Baan Womanifesto in her hometown, Kumphawapi District, Udon Thani Province, with Nitaya as the driver of this as a center for an artists exchange within the Womanifesto network in Thailand - a place where artists can meet and exchange in both the short and long term. She wants to continue her collaborative work with the community, focusing on organising educational programs for children and young people in the area. Baan Womanifesto would also become an alternative learning resource and archive, holding and disseminating the skills and knowledge of the many artists and educators in the Womanifesto network. And Nitaya sees future projects to include a library, an archival database and setting up a homestay for both Thai and international artists.

Nitaya is in great need of the financial support from this campaign as she is currently using a cane and experiences a lot of pain when standing or walking for any length of time. Without a custom-made leg brace, her plans and dreams for the creative centre in her home town will so much harder. She wants this time to be one of living a full life with her children and her community.

On behalf of Nitaya, we thank you 

sincerely,
Jamila, Karla, Phaptawan, Varsha and Virginia 
Womanifesto artists, October 2023