. >> reporter: the mechai pattana school is the cornerstone of an idea to attack rural poverty and stereotypes-ando instill a new kind of learning. >> this is our sex education wheel. >> reporter: the wheel of fortune game teaches about various sexually transmitted disease. >> green is a safe color. aha! h.i.v. oh, boy. then they have a good laugh and then h.i.v. is explained over there. >> reporter: mechai has long relied on good laughs to explain h.i.v. and sex education in this conservative southeast asian nation. born to physicians parents, his mother from scotland his father from a prominent thai family, mechai was trained as an economist. but he became a tv personality who spearheaded family planning campaigns in the '70s and, two decades later, condom use to prevent h.i.v. i first interviewed him in 1998. >> we said, look, one must not be embarrassed by a condom. it's just from a rubber tree, like a tennis ball. if you're embarrassed by a condom, you must be more embarrassed by a tennis ball, there's more rubber in it. >> reporter: mechai is credited with bringing down thailand's soaring h.