The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Young Iraqi women aspiring to political careers are getting a boost from a new Young Women’s Leadership School launched recently with the help of NDI Iraq staff member Ferdos Majeed.

Majeed came to the U.S. for three months in 2009 as NDI’s first Andi Parhamovich fellow, named to honor Ms. Parhamovich, who was killed while working for the Institute in Baghdad in 2007. Each year the fellowship is awarded to a young woman — selected from NDI local staff or a partner organization – who is deeply involved in strengthening democracy in her own country.

When Zinayida Galchynska was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, she was directing a health-care organization in Zaporizhzhya, in southeastern Ukraine. Already a community leader, she vowed that if she survived she would run for office, a move she believed would allow her to have a larger impact on decision-making in her community, particularly on health care issues. She did survive and set out to make good on her promise, though she knew the political odds were against her.