“We began making bags from donated newspaper and then diversified into making handmade paper bags, paper lanterns, gift tags, gift boxes and various gift wrapping products. The newspaper bags line still remains a completely non-profit vertical at Papertrail”, says Diwia Thomas. At the moment they also specialise in customised wrapping, take home gifts, party bags, gift tags, note cards and more.

She is a thriving entrepreneur who believes that woman empowerment must always begin with her financial independence. And so to translate that into reality, she devised the initiative of training women to create bags at home and dropping them off at a common collection point. It worked wonders and currently she engages all kinds of women- single, divorced, handicapped, abused, abandoned, old…. operating from five different locations across Kerala in making paper bags.

The foremost thought for her to start something like this was the perk of working from home along with the objective of providing a secondary income to the ladies she employs. “But very often I find this as the primary income; the one that keeps the home fire burning” says Diwia. “The income they’ve earned has enabled some of them to procure their own medical insurance, and now some have even saved up to buy smart phones, to get onto Whats App. It facilitates a speedy & efficient methos in clarifying designs, specifications, colors,etc” she adds.

The philosophy that’s at the heart of everything she does is that ‘If God is the wind in your sails, your boat will go far’. “Very often when I was at crossroads to find sources for material, there was always a divine intervention in the form of a lead, telephone number or a contact. And this has been the raison d’être behind Papertrail’s smooth sail for the last 4 years and for its expansion,” says Diwia. They are setting up their own retail space and central warehouse. So far so short, their bags have sailed the seas- London, America and now to Belgium and Germany. Their local clientele comprises of some big brands as well as small enterprises.

Ask her about the mantra of Papertrail she says, “We never turn anyone away. I always tell our customers ‘You bring to us your packaging problem; we’ll find you a fix’. We may not be manufacturing such a product but we’ll find a way to make it, sometimes by sourcing material all the way from North India and China. Our USP is that we can do small numbers too since they are handmade and we take pride in customising our products.”

In the future Papertrail would definitely serve as an umbrella for various types of struggling artisans and indigenous craft, not restricted to paper but extending to natural fibre, fabric, pottery etc. India is a rich storehouse of culture, tradition, craft and creativity but at the grass-root level art and artisans are struggling to make ends meet and reaching out to them would be the next move.

visit their facebook page to know more : www.facebook.com/papertrailindia

 Diwia Thomas at TEDxMEC

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