A Revealing Study on Thai Society

Over the past several years, Thailand has had a marketing campaign called "Cabbages and Condoms". I am not sure who has funded this campaign, but their goal is to make condoms as common as cabbage here in Thailand. HIV/AIDS has been a major problem here in Thailand however in recent years the problems has consistently gotten better. However in a country in desperate need of God, they still have a long ways to go according to a recent study.

According to a recent study published in the journal of the Royal College of Pediatricians of Thailand, Thai teens are having sex a year earlier than Californian teenagers and a lot fewer are using condoms, a survey of the two teen population revealed on Valentine's Day. The average age that Thai teens start having sex is 16 compared to 17 for Californians. Even more disturbing is that the rate of condom use among Californian teens was 58% and was only 23% among Thais. Thais have a much higher percentage of teenage pregnancies (90/1000) compared to California (50/1000)and the number of HIV-positive teens in Thailand was 60,000 compared with only 4,000 in California. Both California and Thailand have similar teen populations of about 7 to 8 million.

This study surprised me a lot because Thais in general are much more modest that westerners, but I guess that the east is becoming more westernized. Although the push for sex ed here in Thailand has increased, it shows that need to learn more than just how to protect themselves, they need to know their creator and His design for marriage. That is the only way that Thailand will be changed. Please continue to pray for the nation of Thailand.