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Inspirations: Namibia's Outcast Mayor

Livey van Wyk went from being an HIV-positive teenager to the youngest mayor in Namibia.

In 2010, at the age of 26, Outlook Inspirations nominee Livey Van Wyk became the youngest person ever to be elected mayor in Namibia - an achievement all the more extraordinary because just a few years before the townspeople of Witvlei had made it very clear that she wasn't welcome there. She was attacked and ostracised because she was HIV-positive. Livey had got the diagnosis soon after discovering she was pregnant.

Image: Livey van Wyk
Credit: UNICEF Torgovnik Verbatim Photo Agency

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