From eating healthy and taking vitamins to practicing a more active and healthy lifestyle, advocating for health and safety have been magnified during the pandemic.
Although there will be persons who disregard the gravity of the situation, it’s important to encourage everyone—even anti-vaxxers—to follow the necessary health protocols in order to stay in top shape.
Filipino couple Kharla and Kia de Gracia advocate for these through their Stay Safe Community tote bags.
Stay Safe Community is a brand started by the couple in September 2021. Through tote bags made out of canvas, the couple prints out “Stay Safe Community, good health is luxury” on all bags to create awareness in times like this.
“We all need to be safe and healthy.”
When Kia lost his job as a cafe manager and chef in June 2021, after another Covid-19 surge transpired in Sydney, he thought of starting a new business.
“We both love tote bags, so why not make a business out of it? We wanted to create something relevant with what’s happening these days,” Kharla said.
Available in three sizes, The Mini, The Small, and The Large Shopper, each of the bags is printed with the text “Stay Safe Community, good health is luxury” in bold.
“We want to think that we are advocating for something good to the people: ‘Stay safe community, good health is luxury.’ Our message is printed in bold, so everyone who sees it would think, ‘yes, we all need to be safe.’”
According to Kharla, there’s been a division in their community as the Australian Government urges its people to get vaccinated.
“If we can’t push the anti-vaccine community to get the jab, at least we can relay the message in general that we all need to stay safe.”
The website was launched on Sept. 19, 2021 and although international shipping isn’t available at the moment, Kharla shares that it’s in the pipeline.
“We wanted to sell it in Cebu, of course. We are working on how we can lower the cost so everyone would be able to purchase it.”
Check out Stay Safe Community at www.staysafecommunity.com or visit their Instagram page @staysafecommunity.