About a quarter of all businesses in Africa are started by female entrepreneurs. These women must overcome the stifling bureaucracy their governments impose on any small business while also facing legal and cultural discrimination that deprives women of their economic liberties. 
Dorcas is one such entrepreneur, and her journey is symbolic of the struggle faced by many women in Tanzania. Abandoned to the streets by relatives after her husband passed away, she started a microbusiness making bar and liquid soaps for personal hygiene and clothes washing, respectively. But she soon faced daunting obstacles in the form of business licensing and trade regulations that made it difficult for her to legally operate and expand her new enterprise.
Her situation caught the attention of Tanzania-based Atlas Network partner, Liberty Sparks. “In 2019 when we were running an entrepreneur training program for local businesses in Tanzania, I met a woman named Dorcas,” explained Evans Exaud, executive director of Liberty Sparks. 
Dorcas’ business, he said, began earning a meager but life-sustaining $1 or $2 a day. She eventually earned enough to put food on the table and pay for her three children’s school fees. 
“However, she still faced a number of challenges, one of which was the procedures of registering the business,” Evans said. “If she could register her business and have a proper license, she could sell her products not just in Tanzania, but the entire eastern part of Africa.”
Dorcas is just the type of entrepreneur that Liberty Sparks seeks to empower through their work. The organization has worked extensively to reform and repeal economic policies that put up barriers for Tanzanians seeking to escape poverty and participate not only in local commerce but international trade. Liberty Sparks notes that many Tanzanians have had their goods confiscated and even destroyed when trying to import goods from neighboring countries like Kenya due to overly complex requirements. 
The organization has even ventured into documentary filmmaking to support its policy arguments. Backed by grant and production support through Atlas Network’s Lights, Camera, Liberty program, Liberty Sparks created a documentary based on the story of Dorcas and the community of women entrepreneurs she joined. Titled The Winners, the film went on to win the 2023 Lights, Camera, Liberty Film Festival Award.