We are pleased to invite AustCham members and friends to a joint luncheon presentation on "Saving Thailand’s Education” with distinguished guest speaker, Dr Mechai Viravaidya, Chairman of Population and Development International (PDI) with a special musical performance by the Bamboo School Band.
Join the presentation where Khun Mechai will share his journeys, passions, philosophy, the envelope-pushing Mechai Pattana School, and the new education system he is creating for Thailand.
Event details
Guest Speaker
Dr Mechai Viravaidya Chairman, Population and Development International (PDI)
Khun Mechai Viravaidya, better known in Thailand as the Condom King, has been at the forefront of Thailand's non-governmental work to effect nation-wide economic and social change for forty years. Most renowned for his public campaign on creating and promoting easy access to contraceptives to aid family planning and thereby reduce poverty, Khun Mechai remains a household name for Thai people of every generation.
After forty long years of work in family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention, and other progressive public health policies and campaigns, Khun Mechai has arrived at the foundation of social progress: education. In 2008, a secondary school to provide alternative education was established by the Mechai Viravaidya Foundation to be a life-long learning centre for all citizens in the surrounding communities as well as a focal point of social and economic development. This new integrated development endeavour is known as the School - Based Integrated Rural Development program (School-BIRD), and it aims to produce a new generation of honest, philanthropic, and socially conscious rural citizens.