The Cabbages & Condoms Resort Nang Rong also known as C&C Resort, is an establishment by the Mechai foundation. The Mechai Foundation is part of The Population and Community Development Association (PDA), which is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 1974 by Mechai Viraraidya to promote family planning in Thailand especially in the rural areas of Thailand. Today, PDA is the most diversified NGO in Thailand.
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| Cabbages and Condoms' Restaurant |
PDA dates back more than thirty years to Khun Mechai Viravaidya, who, some of you may have heard speak not long ago at a TCCC luncheon. He has earned respect throughout the world for his humanitarian work in the area of the prevention of HIV/AIDS and for improving the quality of life in thousands of villages in Thailand. Since he established PDA as a grassroots organisation in 1974, Khun Mechai’s vision has never wavered. His aim was to complement the efforts of the Thai Government in promoting family planning in areas where knowledge and access to services were scarce. Trained residents of villages and urban neighbourhoods were recruited to provide information on family planning, including the supervised, non-medical distribution of oral contraceptives. Between the 70’s and 2005, the number of children per family decreased from 7 to less than 2, largely because of Khun Mechai’s efforts. Today the organisation is one of the country’s largest networks, monitoring 11,000 villages through 18 centres in 15 provinces.
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| View of the lake |
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| Restaurant Deck |
After addressing the immediate family planning needs, PDA expanded its activities to include primary health care, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, water resource development and sanitation, income-generation, environmental conservation, promotion of small-scale rural enterprise programs, gender equality, youth development, and democracy promotion. Most recently, PDA has aggressively approached the problem of rural poverty by empowering the poor through the Village Development Partnership, which establishes a community-owned Village Development Bank for the purpose of microcredit. PDA’s involvement in the areas of Health, AIDS, Family Planning and income generation and poverty reduction has created significant change and helped the local people in the Buriram Province.
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| Wooden condoms (actually our room keys) =) |
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| A statue at the restaurant ground. |
We are spending three days and two nights in Buriram at the C&C Resort Nang Rong, Buriram. The experience here is different from staying at Bangkok; here we are one with nature, with natural surrounding that is calm and fresh, sceneries full of green, and the sound of flowing water.
Each of us were split into 2 to a room, except Shanaz who got a room to herself. Our room keys are shaped in the form of a condom, the rooms are furnished with the usual furnishings 2 beds, a dresser and bathroom.
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| The sign says it all. |
The restaurant that is within the resort grounds has very naturalistic elements to it; it has a wooden structure and has a deck that overlooks a lake with a fountain in the middle. The walk to the restaurant is very calming as we walk through paths filled with plants and at night it is dimly lit to give it a very serene atmosphere. The food served is freshly cooked and extremely delicious.
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| Mechai Viravaidya |
Both the restaurant and resort were created to provide financial support for the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), Thailand's foremost nongovernmental charitable organisation. Money spent at this resort contributes to rural development, education and scholarship, HIV/AIDS education and environmental protection.
Amanda Sangeetha Thomas, 21 currently pursuing majoring in Communications and International Studies, suffers from sleep deprivation.
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