Why this activist is piloting the ‘elderly country club’ in Thai temples

In the east of Thailand, just outside the city of Buriram, six older people tend to the waist-high vegetable plots and fruit trees that lie in rows behind a temple. Two monks, under the shade of a tree, explain how a few months ago the lettuce, water spinach, and cucumber that’s taking root in the numerous colorful buckets weren’t here before. But older people from the nearby village have started visiting each day, planting crops that they can sell or use for their own sustenance.

This pilot project is the brainchild of Mechai Viravaidya, an activist and NGO founder whose work in family planning and poverty reduction in the 70s and 80s has earned him the affectionate moniker of Thailand’s “Condom King.”

Fast forward four decades and the octogenarian is now tackling what he believes is a global gap in eldercare — a burgeoning problem given the global aging population. According to the World Health Organization, by 2050 the number of people over 60 will double to 2.1 billion, 80% of which will be living in low- and middle-income countries.