Before he became a Maasai chief, it was "William" Kikanae Ole Pere's childhood dream to make life better for his community in Masai Mara Reserve, Kenya. As a child, he wanted to build a school closer than the one 12 miles away, which he and his boyhood friends had to travel by foot. He also wanted to help his mother and other women in the villages to make a living. When he grew older, he'd walk to the nearest trading town to buy beads to bring back so they could make handicrafts to sell.