All Hail the Condom King

With creativity and fun, Mechai Viravaidya has helped save millions of lives by promoting easier access to contraception.

PDA is a non-governmental organization founded by Mr. Mechai Viravaidya in 1974 to contribute to social development and improvement of people’s quality of life. PDA activities started with promotion of family planning and primary health care by initiating a volunteer system in villages all over Thailand (12,000 volunteers in 16,000 villages), resulted in bringing down the number of children per family from 7 to under 2 over a period of 25 years. PDA was also internationally acclaimed for the nation-wide prevention of HIV/AIDS which eventually resulted in a decline of new infections by 90 percent between 1990 and 2002.