Save Our Fireflies; Save Our Women
Consider these facts : vehicular fume kills an average of 16 people in Metro Manila daily and 70% of air pollution is caused by motorized transport. I learned about these when I met some of the members of Firefly Brigade Philippines who, like me, joined an activity for a cause. That activity was dubbed ” Bike For Violence Against Women (VAW)”. I’ve read about the Brigade a couple of times since they regularly organize bike tours and are always featured in major dailies. I was tempted then to join those tours because I love biking, but for some reasons I always put it off.
Back to the activity I joined. The idea was to promote awareness on violence against women and because people in the Philippines generally love to bike, the tour around Quezon Memorial Circle hopefully would create curiosity among the general public and would catch and retain the message that violence against women is a violation of women’s human rights and should be stopped.
I felt great despite the exhaustion after biking five times around Circle. Why? I contributed to saving gasoline and reducing pollution; convinced myself that this summer I will join the Brigade and their tour, and I have contributed to a worthwhile cause - stop VAW.
I’ve been biking so that lessens the guilt of not contributing to protecting our environment and I have been contributing to saving our fireflies. You know why? Fireflies appear when the air is clean. Have you seen fireflies since you entered Pisay? Save them. Let’s bike.
Equally important is saving our women because one out of three women is being violated. Let’s not tolerate VAW.
Save our fireflies; save our women.
