Bogotá became the winner of the Well-being Cities Award, on behalf of the Canadian organization, NewCities. This project brings together cities around the world that transform urban life and place well-being at the center of their policy.
“I am absolutely optimistic about Bogotá, because even though we’ve had to endure this pandemic, I have seen my city put on its best face, the face of solidarity, empathy, change, adaptation and hope.” expressed Mayor Claudia López on the Canadian podcast ThreesixtyCITY.
The initiative awarded by NewCities was the District Care System – a pioneer in Latin America – which seeks to recognize care-work for the people who perform it, not to mention to help re-distribute and reduce the overload of these tasks that fall mainly on women.
“I believe that we are being recognized very generously because of the District Care System. Generally, in Latin America, not only in Colombia, more than 60% of people work informally, they do not have healthcare when they are sick. Their healthcare is the kindness of the women around them to take care of the children, elderly, the disabled. This is far too much to ask of a person who must sacrifice their education, their job opportunities, and fall into poverty providing for others,” acknowledged the Mayor.
Diana Rodríguez, District Secretary for Women, also interviewed by NewCities, assured that "to rest you need time, to study you need time, to work you need time. For this reason, care blocks and mobile units are epicentres that have social facilities for the benefit of caregivers.”
Mrs. Rodriguez went on to say, “if the beneficiaries of this project need training, they have all the courses at their disposal. Should they need to breathe and take time for themselves, they have a wide range of services for their well-being. The sum of all our services is for them, while we take care of the people in their care, we offer them adequate leisure time and we open options up for them to continue with their life projects.”
Since 2018, the Well-being Cities Award has recognized more than 40 cities on five continents and brought together more than 1,500 world leaders and urban experts from multiple sectors to advance the discussion on well-being. “I believe that it is not a question of things being institutionalized only so that they can transcend governments, but that they must have the capacity to adapt.
There may be services that we have started in the District Care System that may change in five or ten years, when new needs might arise,” re-iterated the mayor.
