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Outlook: Liberian Refugee Becomes a US Mayor

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Wilmot Collins

17/01/2018 GMT

Liberian Refugee Becomes a US Mayor

BBC World Service - Outlook, Liberian Refugee Becomes a US Mayor

Wilmot Collins has become the first black mayor in the US state of Montana

Wilmot Collins has become the first black mayor in the US state of Montana. He went to the US as a refugee from Liberia and he tells Matthew Bannister his story.

This month Wilmot Collins made history in the US by taking office as the first black mayor in the state of Montana. He's the mayor of Helena, the state capital, where - according to the census records - only around 1% of the population is black. What's even more extraordinary is that Wilmot is a former refugee from Liberia. He fled the country when the civil war broke out in the 1990s. 

Omid Asadi is an artist from Iran who has always been inspired by nature, so much so, he uses it as his canvas. He carves very detailed pictures into dried leaves; he's drawn portraits of John Lennon to very detailed cuttings of birds.  

'Dr Ding Dong' or Clare Parry-Jones is determined to make being in hospital a slightly better experience for children. Her job is to go around the wards and cheer up some of the young patients.

Michel André is a French engineer who has been one of the pioneers in the field of bioacoustics, the science that studies the noises of the natural world. He spent most of his life sitting on a boat in the middle of the sea with his headphones on, listening to the sounds coming from a special underwater microphone. 

(Picture: Wilmot Collins. Photo credit: Corin Cates-Carney.)

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