Commenting on her selection, Anna Lo said: “I am very proud to have been chosen to stand for Alliance in the forthcoming Westminster election. South Belfast needs a strong voice on this stage and needs someone whose number one priority is ending division in our society.
“The only way we can unlock the cash needed to provide better frontline services and also attract more jobs to the region is by ending segregation. No party other than Alliance has worked consistently for a genuinely shared future.”
ENDS
Anna Manwah Lo, MBE, MSc, Dip.S.W.
Anna is the Alliance MLA for South Belfast.
Anna was born in Hong Kong and worked in London for a year prior to coming to live in Northern Ireland in 1974. For several years, she made regular contributions to the BBC Chinese Service about the Chinese community and Northern Ireland affairs. In 1978, she started the first ever English evening class for Chinese people in Northern Ireland in a further education college.
Following a career break to have her two sons, she joined the Chinese Welfare Association in 1987 as a community interpreter. Four years later she returned to full-time education and qualified as a social worker from the University of Ulster in 1993 and worked in the health and social services trust and Barnardos.
She took up the post of director of the Chinese Welfare Association in 1997.
Anna was the first vice chair of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and a founding commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. She was also the first chair of the South Belfast Partnership Board.
Anna currently sits on various equality committees including the Bill of Rights Forum and the South Belfast Roundtable on Racism.
Anna was awarded an MBE in 1999 for Services to Ethnic Minorities. In March 2007, she was elected to serve as the MLA for South Belfast for the Alliance Party, and consequently the first ethnic Chinese born person to be elected to a legislative parliament in Europe.
Anna is a member of the Assembly committees for Employment & Learning, and Social Development