Mechai Viravaidya

In Thailand, a condom is called a "Mechai". In the rest of world, Mechai Viravaidya is affectionately referred to as the Condom King.

Mechai has used this simple but most anatomically suggestive contraceptive device to start a social revolution.

He turned the staid and conventional family planning establishment on its head in the process; and now uses it as his banner in his tireless. When it comes to condoms, crusade against HIV/AIDS. no one has been more creative than the Condom King. What Mechai Viravaidya is all about is social and economic development his relentless pursuit to improve the well-being of the poor, to create opportunities for them, to give them the tools to lead a more fruitful, productive, and fulfilling life.

Mechai developed his vision for helping Thailand’s poor in the late 1960s while working as a young economist for Thailand’s National Economic Development Board. In the intervening years he has maintained that vision and pursued it resolutely.

His achievements in family planning and AIDS prevention are a means to an end the alleviation of poverty and injustice for the people of Thailand.

As a young boy, he was sent to Australia to study. Upon returning to Thailand, he serendipitously became a celebrity recognized throughout the country and a development economist in a government agency writing newspaper columns about Thailand's rural development. PDA would implement 328 projects with funds from 70 donor agencies. The projects were diverse from family planning, appropriate technology, and refugee relief to environmental protection, AIDS control, and business development. The methods were unconventional but always entertaining.

Mechai's work with PDA was interrupted by occasional excursions into public service. He held executive positions in state-owned companies and senior positions in government. He served on the Board of Directors of public and private companies. He even made a successful comeback in electoral politics. Blessed by a dynamic personality, infectious entrepreneurial spirit, effective public relations strategies full of humor and wit, and concern for the common man, Mechai left his mark wherever he went. Mechai's journey from condoms to cabbages from his roots in family planning and population management to his ultimate objective of poverty alleviation and improved livelihood for Thai people has spanned 49 years. Along the way, he has been alternately labeled a visionary, an iconoclast, a reformer. He is all of these. He was the development economist impatient with the slow pace of government-led development who evolved into the family planning iconoclast, the social reformer, the anti-AIDS crusader, and visionary leader.

Starting an organization

Starting an organization is one thing, making it successful is another challenge altogether. Mechai faced two significant hurdles. First, community-based distribution of contraceptives by village volunteers had to be tested on a wider scale to see if the concept was workable. Then, he still needed the Ministry of Public Health's (MOPH) approval of his proposal before IPPF could fund it. Since non-physician distribution of contraceptives by non-Ministry of Public Health personnel was still illegal in Thailand in 1974, neither of these obstacles was inconsequential. In the period between January and May 1974, while awaiting formal approval of the proposal, IPPF had provided Mechai with a small grant to pilot test community-based distribution in one district before scaling up further. Finding a sympathetic District Health Officer who shared Mechai's vision and ideals, and who was willing to take a chance with this experiment, was crucial to the success of the pilot test.

Cabbages & Condoms Thailand

operates as a “Business for Social Progress”

And all profits support The Population & Community Development Association (PDA) and its programs in primary health, education, HIV/AIDS, rural development, environment and water etc. The restaurant started as a small vegetable stand on PDA office premises where the vegetables, along with lace panties, T-shirts, key chains, condoms, and oral contraceptives were sold to the local residents. PDA’s Chairman, Mechai Viravaidya, called the shop “Cabbages and Condoms”, a catchy sobriquet that never failed to elicit chuckles from passersby and draw the curious into the shop. The name “Cabbages and Condoms” comes from Mechai's belief that for any family planning program to be successful, birth control should be as accepted and accessible as vegetables in the market.

The seventies Mechai added a small outdoor restaurant where the ‘Som Tam’ (Green Papaya Salad) and ‘Larb Gai’ (Spicy Chicken Salad) were among the best in Bangkok.

As the cuisine gained a reputation, outsiders began showing up. Some of our specialty dishes you may try are ‘Massaman Curry’ (Chicken, beef or lamp sweet curry with potato), ‘Mieng Khum’ (Thai ancient appetizer-lemon, dried shrimp, peanut, ginger, deep-fried coconut, chilli, shallots and special sauce with wild betel leaves), ‘Phad Thai Goong Sod’ (Stir-fried rice noodle with shrimps), ‘Tom Yam Goong’ (Thai spicy shrimp soup, seasoned with chilli, lime, lemongrass and galangal), ‘Khao Niew Mamuang Inter’ (Mango and sweet rice) and ‘Po Pia Tod’ (Deep-fried roll of vegetables and glass noodle). Today, the award-winning ‘Cabbages and Condoms’ Restaurant is acknowledged as one of the finest Thai restaurants in Bangkok. It attracts diners from all over the world, can comfortably seat 400 guests at any one time and does so on many nights.

The Mechai Bamboo School

The Mechai Bamboo School is an innovative secondary educational institution which is also engaged in community development.

This rural boarding school was established to become a lifelong learning center for all and act as a hub for social and economic advancement in surrounding villages. he school has two arms: the first is an educational arm which operates the school for 180 students. The second is a community development arm which provides assistance and cooperation to small rural schools and their surrounding communities. and economic advancement in surrounding villages. The school is located at Lamplaimat district, Buriram province of Northeast Thailand.

The school’s objective is to foster good citizens: Who are honest and willing to share/Possess Life skills and occupational skills/Know how to manage/Community Development leaders/Know how to manage/Practice and promote gender equality The Bamboo School was able to achieve the cooperation and financial assistance from the business community to launch the “School-Based Integrated Rural Development” (School-BIRD) Project. This project has assisted, on average, forty schools per year to become Lifelong Learning Centers and hubs for social and economic advancement with strong participation from members of the surrounding communities and the local government. There are four types of activities:

1. Community Empowerment and Training in Agriculture and Business for Villagers, Students and Teachers

2. Poverty Eradication Farm at the School

3. Business Loan Fund for Students and Poor Parents

4. Water, Dental Hygiene and Sanitation