“Women are looking for more meaning”: These women-only expeditions are changing lives through travel

“I’m having trouble getting insurance for our next trip because of the polar bears and whatnot,” says Christine, laughing, as she talks me through the logistical olympics required to run an expeditionary tour outfit in 2024. 

Whether she’s leading the world’s first all-female team 200 kilometers across the Arctic Circle on fatbikes, breaking records on the Breithorn (for a rope team consisting of 78 women), or smashing first ascents on the mountains of Antarctica, Christine Amour-Levar is no stranger to un-insurable excursions.

The Philippines-born, Singapore-based philanthropist, entrepreneur, investor, mother and adventurer has been taking women into the wild (and outside most policy providers’ comfort zones) with her NGOs, Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth, since 2012. Across 23 expeditions, Christine and her teammates have helped raise over USD$2.5 million for women, gender equality and environmental conservation in the process.

“I think women are looking for more meaning and purpose,” says Christine, talking to me over a Zoom call from her Singapore home. “They’re thinking… ‘I want to put myself out of my comfort zone’. These trips add a dimension to women’s lives where they say, ‘why didn’t I do this sooner?’ They come back very different. They walk a little bit taller. They’re proud.”

Christine had a similar epiphany on her first trek to Everest Base Camp with Women on a Mission in 2012. Though it was an arduous journey—as anyone who has trekked to Base Camp will gladly confirm—Christine and her team raised over USD$100,000 for their partner charity, which received 100 percent of those funds. “It changed my life,” she remembers. “It gave me so much meaning and purpose and happiness. I knew I couldn’t stop there.”

“I have my make-up on, I have my stilettos, I can be very feminine and I love fashion and all that. But there’s definitely another side of me that is very happy sleeping on the floor in the tent and just being out there in nature. It makes me feel so alive.” 

- Christine Amour-Levar

The concept goes thus: Plan a left-of-center adventure, invite a group of women to come along for the ride, ask those women to fundraise for a group of partner charities, complete the expedition, donate 100 percent of the proceeds to said charities. HER Planet Earth’s Mongolia expedition, for example, saw a team of 15 women ride bactrian camels 100 kilometers through the Gobi Desert in support of women from herding communities (via The Nature Conservancy). The Sri Lanka expedition took 12 participants across the Knuckles Mountain Range and supported underprivileged women in Sri Lanka (via the UN Women initiative).

And since 2012 the concept has been borne out. First with Women on a Mission, which was founded to support female survivors of war and conflict, and later with HER Planet Earth, which has been built with climate action—specifically for women—at its core.

“There’s a phenomenon called the ‘feminization of agriculture’ across Asia and Africa, where men go to the cities to look for work, and a lot of times, women are left with the children to tend to the crops,” explains Christine. “As a result, they are at the forefront of climate change. I realized that we could support them by strengthening their livelihoods through travel.”

Christine and her NGOs have taken women on transformative expeditions everywhere from Switzerland, Kyrgyzstan, Siberia, Kenya and beyond, with participant reviews ranging from “one of the most empowering experiences of my life” (Sandra, Antarctica Expedition) to “truly remarkable” (Carolina, Switzerland Expedition). 

Christine runs the trips by partnering with on-the-ground operators, like Secret Compass, to help cover much of the logistics and safety. And while these partnerships help mitigate a lot of the risk, these are still real expeditions. The itinerary for the Mongolia expedition, for example, urged travelers to bring ski goggles to protect against snow blindness. Once an itinerary is confirmed, potential trip participants must apply to join an expedition, and Christine goes to great lengths to ensure her trips include a good balance of personality types, professions and backgrounds (too many Type A personalities, for example, is a dynamic worth avoiding). 

Christine describes her NGOs as “sister” organizations, which is true in more ways than one. The Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth teams are all volunteers, and nobody takes a salary from the running of the trips. Christine has made her living in the corporate world, with a professional background that includes stints at organizations like Nike, Temasek and McCann Erickson. And when she isn’t setting up her tent in an Arctic tundra, she invests in climate start-ups, sits on a number of boards and regularly delivers keynote talks on leadership, climate solutions and philanthropy—often with anecdotes from her expeditions running throughout. 

Christine was raised in the Philippines by a Fipipina mother and a French/Swiss father. She speaks six languages, has lived on four continents and in seven cities, and has visited over 80 countries. At an early age, her mother instilled in her the idea that privilege comes with great responsibility. “She tried to involve us in charitable activities,” remembers Christine of her mother, “and always said ‘you have a duty to do more if you have the opportunity’. I think that probably stayed with me.”

Following Christine on LinkedIn, it’s clear she inhabits two very different worlds: One filled with hand-shaking, deal-making, KPIs and ROIs, and another filled with the kind of adventures most folks couldn’t conjure in their wildest dreams. The headline on her personal website reads: “Explorer by nature, changemaker by choice.”

Today, after our Zoom call, Christine is heading out for lunch at a private club. “I have my make-up on, I have my stilettos, I can be very feminine and I love fashion and all that,” she says. “But there’s definitely another side of me that is very happy sleeping on the floor in the tent and just being out there in nature. It makes me feel so alive.” 

“Asking for donations, not for yourself, but for a charity you believe in, it forces you to advocate and to explain why you believe in this thing. And when you get that support, it’s very empowering.”

- Christine Amour-Levar

In spite of how full her calendar (and inbox) must be, Christine has a disarming ease about her, as if this is all simply hers to do. There’s no indication of ego or saviour complex, just a woman who has identified the issues that matter most to her, and has decided to spend her life working on the solutions to those issues. “There’s a lot of bad news out there and it’s hard not to be affected, especially as a parent,” she says. “That’s why I’m working on so many things. I feel that I need to fire on many cylinders. I can’t just do philanthropy—I did only philanthropy for many years. I want to have an impact.”

As for the most surprising elements of her trips, it isn’t polar bears or flat tyres or perspective-shifting sunsets or the things that go very wrong (or very right); it’s how these experiences help turn women into advocates for the natural world, simply by asking them to participate. “Fundraising is not easy,” says Christine. “Asking for donations, not for yourself, but for a charity you believe in, it forces you to advocate and to explain why you believe in this thing. And when you get that support, it’s very empowering. There’s such a ripple of positivity that comes from that. There’s no replacement for that connection.”

The global travel and tourism industry currently accounts for 10 percent of GDP, and roughly one in 10 people in the world is employed by it. By 2030, the size of the global travel and tourism industry is tipped to be worth something close to USD$10 trillion. When it comes to the latent potential of the tourism industry to maximize its positive impact, Christine believes she has proof, gleaned from over a decade of running her NGOs, that travelers are looking for more meaningful ways to engage with the world.

“There’s a desire for more impact beyond a donation from the tour operator,” she says. “Maybe a portion of the funds from the tour goes towards support local Indigenous communities, maybe it’s allowing people more hands-on conservation experiences—there’s always more to do.” 

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