This year, the campaign called attention to the need to rethink care to achieve more comprehensive and sustainable systems and more equitable redistribution of care.
Attempts have also been made to raise awareness of the importance of a more intersectoral and participatory approach, PAHO said on its digital portal.
The launch event took place in Bogotá, Colombia, one of five cities participating internationally in the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization global project on urban governance for health and well-being.
On this occasion, the Director of PAHO, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, pointed out that in order to transition to a more solid and fair society as a region during the recovery process after the pandemic, it is essential to consider care as a human right and a social responsibility.
The concept of care includes the necessary attention and support throughout every person’s life, from childhood to old age, but also in moments of illness or dependency.
This also includes taking care of both physical and mental health, promoting a healthy lifestyle, facilitating work-life balance, maintaining social relationships and taking care of the environment.
Barbosa stressed the importance of promoting and implementing arbitration measures and promoting better working conditions, such as: B. Sick leave, maternity and paternity leave or time for breastfeeding, but also in relation to health, education, social protection and housing policies.
Since 2011, Wellbeing Week has promoted a positive vision of health and emphasized the importance of promoting it for the well-being of people and communities.
During his virtual intervention at the meeting organized by PAHO in the Colombian capital, Dr. Barbosa said that “one of the biggest challenges we have as a society is to promote a redistribution of care,” since “the social organization of care is currently inequitable in socioeconomic and gender terms.”
On the one hand, families in poverty or with fewer resources have greater difficulty exercising their right to care.
On the other hand, due to gender inequalities in the workplace and the segmentation of the labor market, it is the vast majority of women who are responsible for care, she added.
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