The West African country of Liberia is considered one of the world’s worst places to be a woman. In the aftermath of the country’s brutal civil war, women have limited access to medical care, jobs, and education. Rape is so common that many women don’t know it’s a crime. And most women raise their children on less than $1 a day.

But in one part of the country, women have made progress — thanks to Hannah Slocum, a Liberian known to many as Ma Hannah. As Prue Clarke reports, Slocum has made it her life’s work to lift Liberia out of poverty, one woman at a time. This piece was produced by Tecee Boley, a reporter with New Narratives, an American project that supports women journalists in Africa.