Province of Guayas Guayas: Guayas Care System ‘Caring for Lives’ - Manzana de Cuidado (Care Block)

The Guayas Care System ‘Caring for Lives’ is based on the interaction between citizens and public institutions, achieving access to social services and training processes that improve living conditions through citizen empowerment and the recognition of the efforts of women caregivers and cared-for people.

The inter-institutional articulation developed by the Autonomous Decentralised Provincial Government of Guayas contributes to reducing duplication of efforts and making coordinated work feasible.

On the other hand, it generates positive effects in the community involved, contributing to the recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work in the households of the province of Guayas.

The system implements the components: Training, Welfare and self-care, Income generation and Care, which contribute to:

• Capacity building;

• Improving welfare conditions and contributing to physical, mental and emotional health care;

• Economic autonomy;

• Care and/or support, through leisure, pedagogical, recreational, cultural, sporting and temporary care activities, which promote their autonomy, care and well-being, while positively reducing the care time of carers.

One aspect to highlight is that the system projects a multiplying effect with the implementation of care blocks in the 25 cantons of the province of Guayas. It is important to highlight that, in less than a year of implementation, four care blocks have been opened in Guayaquil, Daule, Palestina and Simón Bolívar; and it is projected to be replicated in other provinces, making it the first care system in Ecuador and the first at provincial level in Latin America.

• http://www.guayas.gob.ec/