By Laura Hartstone

ILCW Member

There is nothing more inspirational than a good trail. Add on a field of wildflowers, a deer in the meadow, a forest of century-old pines or a view from the summit to make the hike more rewarding. I strapped on my boots and chose the latter.

In 2004 after working and studying in East Africa, I felt a desire to support grassroots organizations working with the people and places of the region. My studies were focused on wildlife and ecology and brought attention to issues of human-wildlife conflicts and anthropogenic influence on both land and water.

Together with a friend, we set off to raise awareness about environmental concerns, the importance of education and the need for good health care. Our idea was not to go work for a nonprofit or career search at the UN, but instead to climb mountains.

We gathered 8 of our girlfriends to climb 3 of Africa’s highest mountains, Mount Kenya, Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro. And to make it even more of a challenge, we gave ourselves only 21 days to complete the task. We hoped that these climbs would help generate awareness and funds for local grassroots organizations working with these issues.

To make a long hike, short…all ten of us were successful in reaching the summit of all three mountains and in doing so had raised over $385,000 USD for three hard-working nonprofits at the base of each mountain.

With the desire to expand our reach, we have now launched the Peaks Foundation (www.peaksfoundation.org) offering climbs for women across the globe to get involved in the betterment of other girls and women. We support projects like community conservation initiatives that involve women, maternity healthcare and providing the opportunity for girls to get an education.

Apart from supporting mountain communities worldwide, we encourage women to step out from behind their desk, leave the baby at home with their spouse and/or challenge themselves with a life-changing experience.

We hope you will join us in this exciting endeavour.