Elephant Poo Paper: An International Success Story
Covid wasn’t kind to millions of businesses, including this one.
As the pandemic brought people around the world to a halt, orders dried up and the work almost ground to a standstill.
For the local women who rely on Elephant Poo Paper for their livelihoods, this could have spelled disaster. But thanks to the founders’ – Vijendra and Sarika’s – resourcefulness and dogged determination they managed to turn things around in a very creative way…
In May last year, Sarika went onto social networking site LinkedIn and sent 3000 messages to her contacts and strangers. Yes, 3000!!
She contacted people all over the world asking for their help to get the business going again. Her priority was to set up a website so that they could appeal to an international market and sell their products far and wide.
With every message she sent, Sarika hoped she’d hear back with offers of support. Sadly, there was very little response, but she didn’t let that stop her. She kept going, researching and contacting people with the skills they needed.
And in the end her determination paid off.
Coming together across three continents
As the weeks went on, Sarika started to get some messages back. In the end, four people replied to her wanting to get involved.
And that was all Sarika and Vijendra needed to be able to put a marketing team together stretching from their base in Jaipur, to Goa, to the other side of the world in Portland, Oregon, and Phoenix, Arizona in the US, all the way to Derbyshire in the UK.
The team of six have worked together since September last year and their skills span all areas of business growth. Between them, they put this website together and are still working as an intercontinental team to grow Elephant Poo Paper, and hope to help Sarika and Vijendra realise their dreams…
“ Our dream is to employ 1000 women, provide them with work, health insurance, and security. This way, they and their families can live happy and peaceful lives”
Vijendra was already working in the paper industry when he started making paper from elephant poo over 20 years ago. The idea literally fell out of the sky when some dung almost landed on him. After his initial shock he realised it would be perfect for making paper thanks to how fibrous it is and set about finding the best way to make durable, 100% eco-friendly paper.
These days Sarika and Vijendra run Elephant Poo Paper with help from their daughter Savi and this is the process they’ve developed – it is completely regenerative. No chemicals are used, no waste is produced (except for water, which is full of nutrients and used as fertiliser on fields nearby), no trees are cut down and every product is handmade.
It’s one of the most regenerative papers in the world.
To find out more about the new members of the Elephant Poo Paper family and how we’re growing the company, tune in to the next blog…
L to R: Vijendra, Ram Singh (Vijendra’s brother) and Sarika
