Group pleads for bikes for health workers on the frontline of battle vs COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines—Got an old bike to spare?

A Facebook page is pleading for donations of bicycles for use of frontline health workers to get to work and home as public transport was suspended for the Luzon-wide community quarantine against COVID-19.

Life Cycles PH, on its Facebook page, appealed for bicycles or cash to buy these. “We promise you that we’ll get it to a front liner in need,” the page said.

Donations of helmets and locks are also welcome, it said.

“Public transport is suspended, but doctors, nurses, and grocery and drugstore employees need to get to work. Many of them don’t have cars, and their only alternative is to walk,” the group said.

Part of the plan is to partner with hospitals, groceries, drugstores, and local government units for the bicycles’ distribution.

The Facebook group is also serving as a platform for a community-based lending system for bicycles based on an “honesty system.” Transactions are direct between lender and borrower.

Just a day after the call for donations, the group has already collected at least P116,000 as of Wednesday (March 18).

“We are overwhelmed by the support for our front liners,” the group said. “We are doing our best to get bicycles in the hands of our front liners in the fastest and most efficient way possible.”

President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine on Tuesday (March 17), as the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide continued to rise. To enforce the order, officials also suspended all mass transport.

Health workers had been offered free shuttle to hospitals or their places of work around Metro Manila.

Edited by TSB