Before we get to the knitting needles and the laughter, we want to tell you a little about the extraordinary woman whose life’s work made this project possible.
Saengduean “Lek” Chailert is one of the most remarkable people in Southeast Asia and a leading voice for Asian elephant welfare worldwide. Born in 1961 in northern Thailand, Lek grew up in a family with a deep, almost mystical connection to these animals. Her grandfather, a traditional healer, was gifted an elephant named Thong Kham, meaning Golden One, in exchange for saving a young man’s life. This bond, formed in childhood, set the course of Lek’s life.
After witnessing the mistreatment of captive elephants in Thailand’s tourism industry where they were forced to carry tourists, perform circus tricks, and beg on city streets, Lek couldn’t look away. In the 1990s, she quietly and determinedly did what others wouldn’t: travelling to remote villages to provide medical aid to injured and neglected elephants and rescuing them one by one.
In 2003, she established Elephant Nature Park in the Mae Taeng valley near Chiang Mai, the first refuge of its kind in Asia and now one of the most respected elephant rescue and rehabilitation centres worldwide. Through her Save Elephant Foundation, Lek’s work reaches into Cambodia, India, and Laos, educating mahouts and elephant owners and championing the Saddle Off model, a kindhearted approach to elephant tourism based on empathy and not exploitation. Heroes of Asia, received the Ford Foundation’s Hero of the Planet award, was honoured as one of six Women Heroes of Global Conservation by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and was personally awarded the Légion d’Honneur by President Macron in 2022. National Geographic, the BBC, CNN, and the Discovery Channel have all documented her work. Her documentary Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story — following the rescue of an old, blind elephant named Noi Nah , won Best Feature Documentary at the Genesis Awards.
She is, in every sense, our favourite elephant human.
Why Elephants Need Blankets
Here’s something many people don’t realise: it gets genuinely cold in the mountains of northern Thailand.
From November through to February, the cool season descends over Chiang Mai and the surrounding highlands. While days can be pleasant and sunny, mountain temperatures at night regularly drop between 10°C and 15°C. In elevated areas like Doi Inthanon and Mae Hong Son, they can fall below 10°C. For those of us on Koh Samui, that might sound mildly chilly. Up north, it can feel truly bitter.
Now imagine spending the preceding six months in sweltering tropical heat with temperatures pushing past 35°C during the dry season, sometimes nudging 40°C, and then facing that cold snap. That’s exactly what the elephants at Elephant Nature Park experience every year. Many of the park’s residents are elderly, rescued after decades of hard labour and often carrying physical injuries or compromised health. They feel the cold deeply, and they need help staying warm.
That’s where the blankets come in. Each year, the team at Elephant Nature Park wraps their beloved herd in specially made blankets to see them through the cool months. And that’s exactly where SOS helps!
Our Knitting Group
Last month, a wonderful group of Sisters on Samui gathered at Marketplace for Coffee & Chat, bringing along their knitting needles, yarn, and plenty of conversation. The afternoon was spent creating knitted squares for our elephant blanket project, filled with laughter, good coffee, and that special sense of community.
This lovely knitting group also meets every couple of weeks at Le Blocks, and always welcomes new faces. If you’d like to get involved, you can connect with Carol on 092 484 3430 to join the group.
These squares will be joined to form blankets that will make their way north to Elephant Nature Park to keep Lek’s rescued herd warm through the cool season months.
A warm thank you to every SOS lady who came, picked up her needles, and gave her time and energy to this project. You may have spent a relaxed afternoon knitting, but to an elderly elephant in the mountains of Chiang Mai, what you made means warmth, comfort, and care!
Want to Get Involved?
Whether you’re an experienced knitter or someone who hasn’t picked up needles since school, we’d love to have you at our next session: no pressure, no perfection required, just good company and a shared purpose. Connect with Carol on 092 484 3430 to join the group.
Keep an eye on our Sisters on Samui community page for the next Coffee & Chat date, and join us. Every square counts.
And if you’d like to learn more about Lek Chailert’s extraordinary work or support Elephant Nature Park directly, visit elephantnaturepark.org or the Save Elephant Foundation.
Thank you again to everyone who joined us, and to Lek and her team for giving these magnificent animals the lives they deserve.
