Shyam Priah Marimuthu

Raised in a household that often cared for and gave back to others through selling vadai, Shyam Priah Marimuthu bought a house in Kampung Ampang Campuran in Kuala Lumpur. The house was given a new lick of yellow paint to endow it with positive energy, it became the activity hub for Yellow House in 2011.

Shyam founded Yellow House, a non-profit organisation that works to create more equitable and sustainable opportunities for marginalised communities. As part of Shyam’s outreach efforts since 2012, she has provided free haircuts, done laundry and prepared street people for job interviews.

Together with five volunteers, Shyam created ‘The Unseen Tours’ a social enterprise that trains formerly homeless people to lead walking tours in Kuala Lumpur. Since then, this initiative has been one of Shyam’s most successful, delivering social impact returns.

11 years on, Yellow House is a thriving social enterprise with an international community of 800 spanning over 46 countries. Shyam has served and partnered with clients such as Agensi Anti Dadah Kebangsaan, UNHCR, RexKL, Air Asia Foundation, Thinkcity, Citi Foundation, & Samhoud, Tourism Malaysia, Travel360, DBKL on developing new initiatives to help individuals exit homelessness to design strategies to assist refugees with sustainable alternative livelihoods.

She actively engages with university communities and nurtures a global circle of volunteers. Shyam has been listed as 10 Women NGO Leaders & Social Entrepreneurs To Watch in 2019 in Malaysia, 5 Brave Southeast Asian Women Making A Change For A Better Future and a spokesperson for 6 SPCAs under the Canine Advocacy Team.

For more info on Yellow House, click here.

Making an impact to me simply means creating opportunities and building resilience, taking on the role of a catalyst to bring about the chain reaction that will create a momentum towards infinite goodness to my communities.