“Do good. Relax.” This brilliant motto captures the dual mission of Yellow Leaf Hammocks, which creates sustainable and independent employment for neglected and oppressed rural tribes of Thailand. These “People of the Yellow Leaves,” the Mlabri, create beautiful handcrafted hammocks which are sold on the international market for the benefit of these hardworking, family-oriented communities in Thailand. And hammocks – who doesn’t love a hammock for relaxation?
For the Mlabri, making hammocks has become a pathway out of poverty, indentured servitude and slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture. Accompanying this employment is income stability and educational opportunities.
Says Untours Foundation Co-CEO Elizabeth Killough, “Yellow Leaf Hammocks is a perfect fit for our foundation – it’s creating real social and environmental progress while having fun!”
We prefer giving loans over equity investments, but YLH needed someone to be first to jump in with equity, so we agreed to that role and indeed others followed soon thereafter. We are delighted that they are a B Corporation.
Yellow Leaf Hammocks have been featured in The New York Times, won a deal on the popular TV show Shark Tank (see it here), and have been chosen as a favorite thing by Oprah Winfrey.
Learn more about Yellow Leaf’s values and products here. Help the Untours Foundation support the work of this and other organizations by making a donation.