Cops, Cabbages, and Thailand’s Mr. Condom
Affectionately known in Thailand as “Mr. Condom,” one of TIME Magazine’s “Asian Heroes,” and the winner of many awards including the United Nations Gold Peace Medal and the Bill and Melinda Gates Award for Global Health, today’s guest Mechai Viravaidya is the founder and chair of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA).
Using creativity, humor, and unassailability in finding partners and allies, Mechai championed the most successful family-planning, AIDS prevention, and poverty reduction programs ever known. With condom-blowing competitions, vasectomy festivals, the Cops and Rubbers program, and condom salads at his Cabbages and Condoms restaurant, Mechai made condoms so cool that condoms in Thailand came to be known as “Mechais.”
Through his innovative efforts, Mechai not only brought prosperity to millions by helping to lower the Thai Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 7 to under 2, but also was responsible for preventing upwards of 10 million AIDS-related deaths. He now runs some of the world’s most successful social enterprises, including the UN-endorsed Mechai Bamboo Schools, the goal of which is to use schools as a hub for education, community projects, and citizen-engagement.