Magsaysay Awardees Digital Collection

Mechai Viravaidya

Description

1994 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Public Service from Thailand. In 1974, Mechai Viravaidya founded the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), which pioneered in community-based family planning services and training. He also spearheaded a wide range of projects for rural development, including healthcare, water resource management, reforestation, drug rehabilitation, and credit cooperatives. Mr. Viravaidya launched the first mass campaign to educate Thais about AIDS in 1987. Rejoining the Thai Government in 1991, he helped formulate Thailand’s National AIDS Plan—the most comprehensive government response to the AIDS epidemic in Asia. Mr. Viravaidya has since rejoined the private sector and now encourages Thailand’s biggest companies to “adopt” rural villages and create income-generating projects. To ensure financial sustainability for PDA, Mr. Viravaidya has established sixteen for-profit companies, which include the very popular Cabbages and Condoms Restaurants.

View the items in Mechai Viravaidya

Official biography of Mechai Viravaidya for the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in 1994.

Citation of Mechai Viravaidya as Magsaysay Awardee for Public Service

In electing MECHAI VIRAVAIDYA to receive the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the board of trustees recognizes his mounting creative public campaigns in Thailand to promote family planning, rural development, and a rigorous, honest, and…

Mechai Viravaidya's acceptance speech at the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies held in Manila on 31 August 1994.

Lecture entitled "Making Social Change Everybody's Business" presented by Khun Mechai Viravaidya in relation to his Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1994.

Reaction to a lecture of Mechai Viravaidya on AIDS, Prostitution and Sexual Culture in Southeast Asia by Prof. Michael Tan.

Mechai Viravaidya with Fellow Magsaysay Awardees of 1994
1994 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees paying tribute to Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. As shown in first photo, the late Malaysian journalist Abdul Samad Ismail, the late Professor Fei Hsiao Tung of China, Khun Mechai Viravaidya of Thailand,…

Vegetable Bank and Land Ownership Project
One of Mechai Viravaidya's Program for Asian Projects (PAP) grant under the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. In this effort, "vegetable banks" were established in Rai Nong Kham Yai village as seen on the attached map of the project. Mechai's…

Mechai Viravaidya as 'Mr. Condom'
Mechai Viravaidya has been dubbed as "Mr. Condom" with his
Population and Community Development (PDA) efforts at promoting family planning. Mechai "decided that, to reduce poverty, it was essential to cut the population." (from Asia Intelligence…

One of Population for Community and Development Association (PDA) pamphlet on their AIDS prevention campaign written in Thai.

Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant and PDA
Official brochure of the Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant of Mechai Viravaidya's Population and Community Development Association (PDA). Mechai opened an eatery called 'Cabbages and Condoms' to make condom as ubiquitous as cabbage which is the most…