A young Thai national, half Scottish on his father's side, went off to Australia for college training in the 1970's. Upon completing of that training and returning to Thailand, Meechai Veeravaitaya (respectfully called Khun Meechai), decided he wanted to do good for all Thai people. He recognized the plight of rural Thais, with their large families, small land holdings, and the capricious rice growing seasons affected by drought and flood. Building on the initiatives of the King and Queen to provide health care and education to every Thai, Khun Meechai began a local citizens' improvement non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Population and Community Development Association. Early projects included agriculture, horticulture and alternative cottage industries. Cotton and corn-raising were tried in place of poppies and hemp, the eucalyptus tree of Australia was farmed for its hardiness and fast-growing qualities, sewing and tailoring programs were developed.
However, Khun Meechai soon recognized that a fundamental problem with community development and the improvement in the quality of life for the individual was the very large families rural Thais tended to have. In time past 8 or 10 children were necessary to assure at least some survived to adulthood in order to care for aging parents and provided labor for the fields. With improved healthcare and better economic opportunities nationwide, most Thais were now surviving beyond childhood and families of 6, 8 and even 10 adult children were all too common, creating a competition within the family and the community for scarce resources.
With that recognition Khun Meechai began a program of family planning. Though his efforts the condom became popular and commonplace. In fact, the locals often refer to it as the meechai. In spite of strong objection, vasectomy clinics were established, along with publicity campaigns that ligating the vas did not result in loss of sexual potency, a common fear. Those who participated in getting a vasectomy were given a T-shirt which proclaimed that "I've been vasectomized and my pigeon still flies high" (the colloquial for an erection). To have two children became popular and "in". With his program and that of the Thai Ministry of Health, population growth rate in Thailand dropped from 2.4% in 1970 to 1.2% in 1995. Instead of doubling the number of Thais in 40 years, that doubling of the population will not occur for over 75 years now. That has major implications on both the social and economic development of any country.
When asked how he was so successful, Khun Meechai, in a very matter-of-fact and off-had way, said he simply showed the benefit of family planning and smaller family numbers to the individual. Hence, a wonderful lesson to all health educators: how can we show the individual the benefit of our program to them?
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