Trekking for hours in the thin air of the Himalayas, hundreds of maroon-robed Buddhist nuns are carrying vital aid — and health advice — to villagers left destitute and sick by Covid-19, reports Rueters.

Nicknamed the “Kung Fu nuns” because they train in martial arts, the women come from the Drukpa lineage — the only female order in the Buddhist monastic system where nuns have equal status to monks.

Besides hauling sacks of staples from rice and lentils to toiletries and face masks on their backs in the harsh mountain conditions, the nuns have been urging villagers to heed the threat posed by Covid-19.

“The biggest challenge has been explaining to people how dangerous this virus is,” Jigme Konchok Lhamo, 28, said.

“People do not take it seriously nor the precautions seriously,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, via video call.

The villages receiving aid from the nuns lie on both sides of the India-Nepal border, and some 2,000 poor families have been supported so far.