Caring to make up for lost time
Former manager at cosmetics giant gives up high-flying career to help elderly and cancer patients forge better lives after her own father suffers health setback, writes Nauvarat Suksamran
The life of a woman in her mid-30s who held a management position at a world-renowned cosmetics company changed suddenly after her father suffered acute heart failure. Luckily Panita Rujikietkamjorn’s father survived that critical illness, but this encouraged her to pay more attention to the health and well-being of those getting on in years.
This also became a catalyst for Ms Panita, the brand manager of L’Oreal (Thailand), to quit her top-notch, high-flying career and pursue a new path of helping people, particularly the elderly.
She began gathering more knowledge about how senior citizens take care of their health and live after retirement.
“I went to Japan to observe homes for senior citizens where I saw many old people enjoying activities. They also took care of their health on their own without relying on their children,” said Ms Panita said.
After those trips, she decided to open Club Active Silvers, which provides a wide range of activities for senior citizens, including forums and training for those of advanced age to know how to take care of their health so they will not be too much of a burden on their family.
Ms Panita teaches the elderly to play mindteasing games to ward off dementia and get into routine light exercise to strengthen the muscles.
Ms Panita has opened Auspicious World (Thailand) Co, which sells a wide range of snacks and sweets under the “Farmhomm” brand. The health products targeting older customers contain low sugar and salt and non-spicy ingredients. The company employs senior citizens. The sought-after product lineups include khanom pia, a Chinese flakyskinned cake with sweet filling.
“Our customer base is increasing. People understand our (elderly-friendly) product concept and support us,” Ms Panita said, adding she mainly promotes her products through social media and stalls at festive events.
The company also prepares products in gift-wrapped packages and baskets sold on festive occasions. The bulk of the sales come from orders from large corporate and the revenue is a critical financial lifeline for the company, which enables Ms Panita to carry on helping the older people to be financially independent.
According to Ms Panita, the products are gaining popularity as they cater to older people with health issues as the country moves toward an ageing society.
Apart from the business, she is also a regular health columnist in popular magazines and a lecturer on marketing and business development for Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University, Stamford University, Huachiew Chalermprakiet University and Mahidol University.
She said many of her friends and acquaintances are clueless as to why she has turned her back on a top-level executive job with a six-figure salary and switched to running a snack company that earns a smaller income.
Ms Panita said many thought she was not making sense giving up a career thousands would kill for.
“My family supports me and gives me a moral boost,” Ms Panita said.
“What’s important is that I’ve found contentment in what I’m doing. In the future, I hope the elderly folks can live a happy and healthy life.”
Ms Panita and her friends travel the distance to offer care to elderly people as well as those in need who suffer from illnesses and battle drug addiction.
At the Lop Buri Cancer Hospital and Udon Thani Cancer Hospital, the two key facilities for cancer patient treatment in the Central Plains and the Northeast respectively, the group also helps share knowledge of how cancer patients can look after themselves and ease the side effects of treatment which can be traumatic.
The patients subject to chemotherapy are given a crash course on how to face down the worst of the disease even as it affects their appearance, which helps lift their self-esteem. The patients who lose their hair during treatment are shown how to wear a scarf fashionably around their heads, for example.
At Lop Buri Cancer Hospital, Ms Panita demonstrates how patients can use rubber band chains, about a metre long, to exercise as part of the “Stretch Rainbow Forward” regiment. A light workout using the rubber bands can be lots of fun as it takes the patients’ minds off their illness.
Ms Panita said the rubber bands were donated by friends and colleagues. They were given to older volunteers, who include her mother, to weave into interlocking chains.
“Chains of rubber bands for physical therapy help people do simple workouts. This can help ease patients’ worry and stress, and is a good form of exercise for them,” said Ms Panita.
In Lop Buri, Ms Panita makes a stop at Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu, a temple which doubles as a home for people in the final stage of HIV/ Aids. There, she donates rice, bottled water and some money, the three items most needed by the facility running on charity and where everything seems to be in short supply.
Ms Panita and her friends also make time to travel upcountry to Wat Tham Krabok in Saraburi, a renowned drug rehabilitation centre.
They brought with them the Farmhommbrand khanom pia, among other snacks and treats, to give out to drug addicts undergoing
What’s important is that I’ve found contentment in what I’m doing. In the future, I hope the elderly folks can live a happy and healthy life. PANITA RUJIKIETKAMJORN FOUNDER OF CLUB ACTIVE SILVERS
rehabilitation. Inside each khanom pia, a piece of paper is inserted with a word of encouragement that bolsters the addicts’ desire to turn over a new leaf.
Ms Panita was born to a well-to-do family. She finished high school at Mater Dei School and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Chulalongkorn University. She went on to study for her master’s in the same field at Sasin.
Ms Panita had an internship at a highprofile company before being recruited into marketing at a Singaporean branch of the firm.
Her resume is filled with impressive professional credentials and achievements, which made it easier for her to switch jobs to international firms.
She used to work as a brand manager of Coca-Cola (Thailand) Co, where she launched a corporate social responsibility campaign to join a clean-up operation of Bangkok following the massive floods in 2011. Her campaign was mentioned by the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In 2016, she landed the job of a brand manager of L’Oreal (Thailand), entrusted with the tough challenge of cementing a commercial foothold for the company’s seemingly endless array of cosmetics and related products. Ms Panita is also recognised as among the country’s top 50 new executives.