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Annie Coates, Social Hero

It's official - Annie Coates is a Social Hero! Something so many people have known for so long was recognised when Annie was presented with a Prime Ministers Social Hero Award in July 2009. She is pictured right with the Prime Minister John Key after receiving the award.

The awards are presented by the Robin Hood Foundation to recognise businesses that support charities through longstanding partnerships. Amongst the winners, which included corporate players such as Genesis and Heinz Watties, was a Special Award recognising Annie’s outstanding contribution through her business to supporting new New Zealanders to resettle here in New Zealand.

Golden Lotus

Annie works at ChangeMakers Refugee Forum by day but by night she can be found at the Golden Lotus, a Thai restaurant she has owned and managed for seven years in the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn. She has given many refugees and migrants resettling in New Zealand a helping hand by providing jobs that offer work experience.

Annie never saw herself becoming a business woman. She rather reluctantly inherited the Golden Lotus when the owner was forced to return to Thailand seven years ago for personal reasons.  Annie, who had never run a restaurant or a business before, agreed to help her out until she came back and ended up with the restaurant.

ChangeMakers' staff wanted Annie’s tireless work in supporting refugees recognised, and in particular her strong support for those forced to flee her own homeland of Myanmar. She arrived in New Zealand from Myanmar in 1983 to marry Peter Coates, a New Zealander she met while he was holidaying there.

Helping hand

Annie has used the restaurant to train and mentor those needing a helping hand. Many have started out under her watchful eye, learning to wait on tables, prepare food or work in the kitchen. They have all gone on to other jobs as a direct result of the work experience they gained through Annie. Others worked for her in order to pay their university course fees and were able to avoid crippling debt, thanks to her support.

In the past Annie has closed the Golden Lotus on Monday nights so that community groups could hold fundraising dinners. Over $12,000 was raised to help the survivors of the cyclone that battered Myanmar last year.

Auntie Annie

The Golden Lotus has also become a centre for social events for refugees from Myanmar now living in the Wellington Region and Palmerston North. Annie provides enormous support to the Burmese community living in the greater Wellington region, many who are without the support of their immediate or extended families. She is nana, aunty and mum to many families!

See Annie's story as told by New Tang Dynasty Televsion here.