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Cabbages & Condoms Summary
Thailand: Cabbages & Condoms www.pda.or.th/c&c/
Cabbages & Condoms, a Thai restaurant chain, is the fundraising source behind Thiland's largest nongovernmental organization, the Population and Community Development Association, or PDA. Founded in 1974 by Mechai Viravaidya, a formerly well-known government official, the aim of PDA is to promote sex education, family planning, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The Cabbages & Condoms restaurants market Thai food at competitive prices in areas of the country that are particularly trafficked by tourists. In advancing PDA's fundraising endeavors through the chain of restaurants, he offers employment (with fair wages and benefits) to HIV-positive employees. Hiring local residents and buying produce from farms that are close to each restaurant keep the business' costs down and benefit the local economy.
Viravaidya believes that NGOs who depend on funding solely from donations run into programatic restrictions, which prevents them from reaching their full potential. The chain of Cabbages & Condoms restaurants are legally registered as a separate entity from PDA, but are bound by an internal regulation to use their profits strictly for the purposes of business expansion, donations to charitable causes (specifically to PDA), and reserves. PDA donates land for the expansion of new restaurants, so the only startup cost is for site construction.
The third key to Viravaidya's success is his indefatigable marketing savvy. The restaurants are lauded in guide books for their authenticity and high quality product. Furthermore, he uses the model of doing business for social progress as a creative and experimental challenge for entrepreneurs. The social mission of the restaurants makes marketing them easy. Viravaidya quips that "birth control should be as accessible and as easy to buy as vegetables in the market!" Each dish served at Cabbages & Condoms delivers on this sentiment. In a position paper, Viravaidya wrote: “Creating jobs for communities is a sustainable way to help communities. The old attitude of the government to eradicate poverty is charitable hand-outs, but in the long run, it is a way to teach the poor to be dependent. I believe business is the right medicine in solving poverty.”
