SOS Elephants - Stephanie Vergniault

Stephanie Vergniault is the Founder and Executive Director of SOS Elephants. Stephanie is a French lawyer who specializes in elections and governance. She became passionate about her work overseas and traveled worldwide doing mission work in places like Nicaragua, Venezuela, RDC, Burundi, Ethiopia, Gabon, and Chad. She first came to Chad to work with the government on electoral assistance, but during her travels she began to see the dire situation of the nation's elephants. In 2009 Stephanie decided to take action and created the NGO SOS Elephants, whose mission is dedicated to the preservation of elephants and their habitats throughout various regions by employing methods in research, education, conservation and counter poaching disciplines.

Stephanie now Lives in Chad and is working closely with local communities teaching elephant conservation tactics. Stephanie has been educating local farmers on how to protect their crops from elephants. She has also been working tirelessly in the field with anti-poaching task forces trying to get an idea of how desperate the situation is. One of the newest projects Stephanie has undertaken is building an elephant orphanage for the baby elephants who are orphaned after their mothers are poached for their ivory.

Stephanie’s and SOS Elephant’s long term goal is to conserve the elephants of Chad by working with local farmers, local communities and anti poaching task forces in hopes that the species can be saved for future generations to come.