NDI's international election mission will observe the country’s National Assembly elections now scheduled for April 9.

The assembly elections, always an important poll for Nigerians, have now taken on added significance as election officials work to overcome problems that led to the postponement of those elections by one week, NDI said. The NDI delegation had planned to observe Nigeria’s presidential poll, which was originally scheduled for the 9th.

Mardia Greaves-Bloh was only 17 when Liberia tumbled into a brutal civil war in 1989. The war would continue with brief interruptions until 2003, and she saw children as young as 7 join the fighting. Those who survived often found no homes or families to return to when the conflict ended. It was her compassion for those abandoned children that led her to work for child protection services after the war. For several years, she helped ex-combatant children living in the street readjust to life in Liberian society.