Prince William and Prince Harry are keeping the legacy of their late mother, Princess Diana, alive.

The princes may be estranged, something that saddens many of their family friends and those who knew the late Princess Diana, but separately, they have continued to forge paths on behalf of missions that Diana began.

For William, 43, that has meant backing the campaign to help the unhoused and developing that into a broad, practical bid to find new solutions to tackle the issue.  

Meanwhile, Harry, 40, championed young people of southern Africa, especially amid the HIV and AIDS epidemic, a journey that began almost 20 years ago by creating the charity Sentebale. He has also adopted the landmine clearance organization Halo Trust, for which Diana made an iconic walk through a minefield in Angola, Africa, in the year that she died, 1997.

Both have worked to bolster support for people struggling with mental health challenges, something Diana was at the forefront of recognizing, and help for young people.

“The world witnessed who she was and witnessed what she did and collectively grieved for her,” says Tessy Ojo, CEO of the Diana Award, which both princes support.

“They are both young men who have families, and from a sense of love and a place of keeping that memory alive, it is a no-brainer that they’d want to keep that memory alive. This is not just for their family but also for the wider world,” Ojo adds.

“I’ve seen how they watch young people who never met their mother articulate the impact she’s had on them,” Ojo tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “There is a sense of immense pride: ‘Wow, my mother did that!’ ”

They also bring her intuitive touch to the ordinary people they meet. Mick Clarke, CEO of homelessness charity The Passage, has seen Prince William at work on many occasions, including when he came privately during the COVID pandemic.

“He spends hours with people, and there is an awful lot of hugging!” Clarke tells PEOPLE.

He adds, “When you’re at you’re lowest and knowing that someone who is going to be the future king says, ‘You are valued, you are important,’ it reinforces and affirms the human dignity,” Clarke adds.

“One of the most distressing things about homelessness is you lose all dignity and feel a failure through no fault of your own,” he continues. “And to have someone of his status saying, ‘You’re important and valued.’ From our point of view, to have someone who is our patron saying, ‘You’re in the right place, these guys can help,’ is immensely welcomed.”

It is a two-way street, with the princes picking up from the young people.

Ojo says, “When I see them listen, I also see they are learning something from someone who never met their mom but has learned something of her values. I love moments like that.”

“I also see the smile, the pride, and I see that they are thinking, ‘My mom did that.’ It feels like a re-commitment. If that person is doing this in my mum’s legacy, I have to do more. Almost like a re-ignition of that passion if that third party who never met my mom feels this strongly. This is my interpretation of the expressions I see,” she adds.

Prince William and Prince Harry regularly, but separately, take part in Diana Award events, recognizing young people from around the world for the impact they are having on their own communities.

“They see that next generation who are instilling her legacy and values into generations to come,” Ojo says. “I’m sure they do it with their own individual families, but what the Diana Award does is continue that legacy and pass that legacy and values on to generations of young people who would never have met her.”

Ojo says that both sons reflect the values of their mother: duty, service, empathy, selflessness and “that ability to ally with, and think about others, and empathy to see – so that other people’s plights become visible.”

She adds, “We live in an increasingly polarized world. The values that we uphold are around empathy and selflessness and the ability to step into other people’s shoes. It is drilling back into our humanity rather than some form of identity politics.”

In 2017, Prince Harry pledged his support to make the world free of landmines by 2025 in a powerful speech at Kensington Palace on International Mine Awareness Day, and last year Valdemar Fernandes, HALO Angola Program Operations Manager, and witnessed Diana’s memorable walk through the landmine in Angola told PEOPLE how the prince is continuing his mother’s work. “He is doing very well…He’s taking this seriously, he wants this job to be finished, and I think we’ll get there,” Fernandes said.

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Seyi Obakin, CEO of Centrepoint, which Prince William paired up with at the start of his public life after completing university 20 years ago, has seen the effect the heir can have on the young people who are helped by the charity.

“There may be a group of young people around the table. They’re nervous one minute, and he gets into the room and starts chatting to them, and the nerves fall away,” Obakin says. “And they start telling him things. He knows the right questions to ask, when to back off, when to lean in. It is amazing what he does.”

“And when he leaves, two things happen: One, they are on a high — they have just told the Prince of Wales what they’re going to do — and two, they want to do it. He leaves them in that state because they have said to him, ‘That’s what I am going to do.’ Very few people have that impact on other people.”