Our story

Yellow House is a not for profit grassroots community organisation dedicated to improve lives to be more sustainable for homeless people, urban poor and refugee communities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. The idea of a non-profit for benefit community came about when our views on giving back to the society seemed to be shared with many out there allowing us an opportunity to give real, substantial and continuous help to the marginalised. Supported by a strong board of trustees and supportive partners, Yellow House has uplifted more than 100 lives. The non-profit organisation aims to promote volunteerism and social impact amongst some of the social issues faced in Malaysia namely homelessness and refugees.

7 years after its creation, Yellow House is now a social enterprise with a thriving international community of 700 volunteers in over 40 countries.

OUR TEAM

Shyam is a psychologist and a former corporate responsibility strategist who has been working on social causes for more than a decade.
Shyam has always been passionate about connecting with people and helping marginalised communities grow. She started Yellow House in 2011 and from her own backyard, and has watched the organisation grow to what it is today.
Through her work, she has worked, served and partnered with clients such as Agensi Anti Dadah Kebangsaan, UNHCR, RexKL, Air Asia Foundation, Thinkcity, Citi Foundation, &Samhoud, Tourism Malaysia, Travel360, DBKL and many more on projects ranging from developing new initiatives to help individuals exit homelessness, to designing strategies to assist refugees with sustainable alternative livelihoods.
She is passionate about building relationships and nurtures a global community of volunteers. She actively engages university communities in motivational talks, 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 is a spokesperson for 6 SPCAs under the Canine Advocacy Team.

Shyam PriahFounder & President
Aqilah is a Food Science and Technology student at a local university in Selangor. She believes that youths, as the leaders of tomorrow, should be actively contributing back to the society.
Aqilah was introduced to Yellow House through a student society, and has subsequently gone on lend her knowledge on the perspective of youths, while also actively bringing in youth volunteers from around the world to Yellow House.

AqilahSecretary
Ratna is a creative who has been working with multinational corporations in Malaysia for close to 20 years. Her extensive experience in the human resources sector has put her in good stead for building and maintaining relationships between people and also communities.
As a childhood friend of Yellow House founder Shyam, Ratna also retains a similar passion for working and empowering marginalised communities and also working on social causes.
She joined Yellow House’s board in 2017 and has since lent her expertise in cooking, sewing, crafting, and the power of positive thinking that has stood to benefit dozens of Yellow House’s beneficiaries.
She currently serves as Yellow House’s assistant secretary and also helps run programmes that teach living skills for women beneficiaries at Yellow House.

RatnaAssistant secretary
Ram is a creative communications specialist who has been in the Malaysian media and communications sector for close to a decade.
A filmmaker by training, Ram spent over eight years reporting on Malaysian current affairs and politics for various prominent Malaysian news organisations. After quitting journalism in 2018, Ram has produced and directed a short film in India, and also worked as an innovation consultant.
He is currently writing his debut novel for a regional publisher, apart from writing a Malaysian current-affairs television show which is also set to debut this year. .
Ram joined Yellow House in 2017 to lend his storytelling and media expertise to the growing social enterprise landscape in Malaysia.

RamMedia Expert
Mahendran is a digital innovation and a social activist who believes that global problems require local solutions.
Mahendran had been working on community projects and social causes with Yellow House founder Shyam for over a decade, including public clean-up campaigns for Thaipusam and Wesak Day celebrations, and also providing free hair wash and haircuts to the homeless in Kuala Lumpur.
He currently heads the innovation lab for a social entrepreneurship development programme at a Malaysian corporation, where he helps nurture and build capacities for social entrepreneurs.

MahendranTreasurer
Chew has extensive experience in volunteering and developing leadership skills in youth. A competent project manager, Chew brings values to projects with meaningful and impactful stakeholder engagement.
Chew has worked with several non-governmental bodies and social enterprises including AIESEC and Bihani Social Venture in Nepal.
He works closely with youths and NGOs in projects that primarily focus on community development.

ChewVice-president
Farah was a geologist who worked in the oil and gas industry for over a decade. She decided to venture into volunteerism while taking a break from her career, and subsequently discovered Yellow House.
She joined Yellow House in 2017 and has provided support for activities helping street friends and helped train our tour associates for Unseen Tours Kuala Lumpur.
Farah is passionate about having multicultural and multinational exposure in her community engagements, in line with Yellow House’s work with the refugee community and also the street people.

Farah
Guillaume is a French informatic engineer specialised in data analysis and artificial intelligence, currently working to reduce the environmental impact of construction domain through the tools of data analysis.
As he was travelling and volunteering around the world, he met Shyam in Kuala Lumpur in 2019 as a volunteer where he helped to develop the activity of the Yellow House. Back to France, he decided to continue his mission: maintaining the website and helping the NGO on IT questions.

Guillaume HillionIT engineer
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