In WE folklore, they are the “Last Maasai Warriors.” Wilson Meikuaya and Jackson Ole Ntirkama are known for their struggle to preserve Indigenous Maasai culture while carving a path for future generations. Today, they have taken up a new mantle, fighting COVID-19 in Kenya. And when they speak, people listen.

Many who’ve taken a ME to WE Trip to Kenya have met Wilson and Jackson, who joined the organization as tour guides in 2007. They can teach you how to throw a rungu, the wooden club used in hunting or warfare, identify a myriad of medicinal plants and share their deep knowledge of Maasai history and society. Fluent in their native Maa, Swahili and English, they also play a key role in building connections between visitors and locals.

“Being a guide with ME to WE was about empowering the community,” says Wilson. He and Jackson see their new role as an extension of this mission.

With ME to WE Trips on hold since March, they have leapt to the forefront of the organization’s pandemic response in Narok and Bomet counties. Armed with soap, flyers and a loudspeaker, they move from village to village—by Land Cruiser, motorcycle and sometimes on foot—to reach people before the virus does. Kenya’s COVID-19 cases now number close to 3,000 and Bomet reported its first case in mid-May.

“As warriors, we are taught to be strong. This period needs a lot of strength. But to be strong, you need to be proactive,” says Wilson, who hasn’t traveled home to see his wife or two-year-old daughter since he joined the outreach campaign months ago. Both he and Jackson, a father of three young children, say they have a duty to show people how to protect themselves.

Preventive measures are a hard sell given the realities of village life, where close quarters and handshakes are common. But Nahashon Kagiri, associate director of programming for WE in Kenya, says people are willing to listen to the warriors because they are role models in WE partner communities. “When it comes from Wilson and Jackson, people take the message seriously,” he says.

Among the last generation to undergo traditional Maasai warrior training, where young men prove their unflinching bravery by slaying a lion and bringing home its mane, Wilson and Jackson are also among the first to fight for a new rite of passage—education. In 2008, they left their respective homes in Maji Moto and Naikarra, in Narok County, and set out for Kenya’s capital city to bring home college diplomas.

Wilson pursued tour guiding and administration, as well as botany and wildlife studies at Interworld College, while Jackson specialized in tourism management at Kenya Utalii College. They hoped to find jobs and support their families, but in their work with WE, their impact goes further. The global solidarity they foster is at the core of sustainable development, helping to secure the future of their communities.

In 2012, they published The Last Maasai Warriors, an account of their journey to become leaders in a changing landscape. They have since shared their story on the WE Day stage and in classrooms across North America.

Now on the frontline of COVID-19 prevention, they face a tougher audience.

During the first days of WE’s outreach campaign, the Land Cruiser caused some confusion. The vehicle that once carried travelers on safari was outfitted with a loudspeaker to draw people from their homesteads, but at times it had the opposite effect.

“People thought we were politicians. They thought we were going to communities asking for votes,” Jackson says, laughing.

As the campaign rolls on, new obstacles emerge. Children scurry into hiding at the mention of the word “corona.” Village elders wave off the vehicle, fearing it will deliver the virus to their doorstep.

In each instance, Wilson and Jackson approach with humility and understanding.

“In Maasai communities, they’ve seen flu-like diseases and often they’ll use traditional medicine and pray to God that the people are healed,” says Wilson. His own father was a medicine man and his mother a midwife, and seeing them treat people with herbs first inspired his interest in botany. He encourages elders to maintain their customs, but also to recognize that COVID-19 is a new disease affecting the whole world. Taking action is essential to survival.

Jackson’s role is not only prevention education, but also to shore up nutrition among the most vulnerable in WE partner communities. He peels off on his motorcycle to deliver seeds and dehydrated meals donated through the Unstoppable Foundation, visiting roughly 40 homesteads a day.

“Many people are struggling to feed their families. They usually depend on selling livestock or running shops, but all markets are closed,” says Jackson.

Not every family has a working kitchen garden or knows how to farm. The Maasai are pastoralist by tradition and rely on the milk, meat and blood of cattle for all their nutritional needs. Faced with frequent drought and shrinking pastureland, Jackson’s parents recognized the value of crop production and took up farming maize, beans and wheat. Now a skilled farmer himself, Jackson encourages people to ask their neighbors for help to cultivate a new food supply. The interdependence inherent to Maasai culture will be critical in the months ahead.

“Warrior training insists on working together and being unified in the community,” he says. “If we help each other right now, we will be alright.”

WE’s COVID-19 prevention campaign has reached 275,000 people across Narok and Bomet counties, moving far beyond the organization’s partner communities. In new villages and towns, Wilson and Jackson draw on their years as expert guides and communicators, connecting with people to find common ground in unlikely places.

“The communities that now know us refer to us as the ‘corona people,’” Wilson says. “When they see our car, they say, here are the ‘corona people.’”