DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 26 June) – After seeing more Dabawenyos use bicycles in the time of Covid-19 pandemic, Dabawenya artist Mavi Novelero decided to give out free reflective sashes to bikers and frontliners, giving the popular social media jargon “seen-zone” a different meaning.

“Seen-zone” on social media means “ignored.”

But the 30-year old artist and biker had one thing in mind while pulling this initiative off the ground – putting the bikers and frontliners in the “seen-zone” to make them more visible, particularly at nighttime, to keep them away from harm’s way.

Novelero said her sister and some friends helped distribute reflective sashes to bikers, especially the newbies who have yet to equip themselves with proper safety gears and accessories like helmet, reflectors, lights, and blinkers, emphasizing the importance of road visibility.

“We prioritize the bikers who have no helmet and other safety accessories. There are so many of them. At the same time, we need to educate them on the importance of visibility. I am hopeful that when they have savings, they will invest in proper safety gears and accessories,” she said.

Novelero thought of doing this project to mark her 30th birthday last June 9 after a member of Tiklop Society of the Philippines, a Facebook group created for folding bike owners in the country, distributed free “Kita Ka” reflective sashes to bikers in Metro Manila and encouraged its members across the country to replicate similar initiative.

“They encouraged everyone to do the same on a personal level. I realized that making the sash would be easy. We have newbie bikers and we can see a lot who still have no proper safety gears or accessories,” she said.

Excited to help, Novelero immediately buckled down to work, borrowed a sewing machine from her sister who taught her to sew, and asked friends to help her distribute along the main streets of Davao such as Quirino Avenue, Magallanes Street, C.M. Recto Steet, and J.P. Laurel Avenue.

She said they planned to be out on the streets again on June 28 to give out reflective sashes.

“Hopefully, I can continue this project. I need volunteers who can help distribute in different areas and supporters who can donate materials,” she said.[]/a> with |||