Meredith Cortés Bravo: “Caregiving cannot continue to be something invisible, devalued, that impoverishes or marginalizes you. It has to be a right, and as such, it must be guaranteed and respected by society”.

^{Photo: Courtesy of Meredith Cortés Bravo}

As part of the joint work between UN Women, the Ministry of Social Development and Family and the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, Chile has taken concrete steps towards the construction of a National Care System with a rights-based approach. During 2023, 12 citizens’ dialogues on caregiving were held in different regions of the country, with the active participation of more than 12,600 people, primarily women caregivers. This initiative highlighted the voices and experiences of caregivers, often invisible, and made visible the diversity of caregiving realities in the country.

More than a consultation, the #LetsTalkAboutCare dialogues were spaces for listening, recognition, and collective construction of proposals, marking a milestone in the design of a public policy that values, dignifies, and redistributes care as a pillar of social welfare. This experience positions Chile as a pioneer country in Latin America and the Caribbean, being the first to systematically and representatively consider the voice of caregivers in all its diversity.

In 2025, UN Women continued this process through new territorial meetings with women caregivers in different regions, to socialize the results of the citizen dialogues and deepen, from an intersectional and territorial approach, their main demands and needs.  

In 2019, in the Commune of Alto Hospicio, city of Iquique, Chile, amid the Chilean social uprising and just before the onset of the pandemic, Apañales emerged as an organization that aims to accompany and support women caregivers in spaces of containment, meeting, and visibility for their experiences.

The organization is dedicated to contributing to the emotional, social, and community well-being of caregivers, promoting recognition of their work, and articulating networks to advance towards a more equitable and collective care system.

In this context of uncertainty, Meredith Cortés Bravo and a group of friends began to observe the precariousness faced by many women, especially migrants, who lived without support networks or access to basic services.

What began as a solidarity delivery of disposable diapers evolved into a more sustainable proposal: the distribution of reusable diapers, capable of lasting up to three generations. 

New perspectives on care within everyone’s reach 

Over the past six years, the organization has expanded its range of action. “Since last year, we have strengthened this line of work. So far, we have benefited approximately 50 women through a project that consists of a cycle of workshops for making ecological towelettes, recycling fabrics, and opening spaces for conversation about maternity, sexual health, breastfeeding, and respectful childbirth, all from an intercultural perspective with an Aymara approach,” says Meredith.

“These meetings, beyond their practical component, have become spaces for emotional containment and community empowerment. As we sew, we talk about profound issues. It is a form of collective self-care,” explains Meredith.

One of the most significant achievements has been to take these workshops to the maternity module of the women’s prison in Iquique. There, women deprived of liberty have found in the making of ecological wipes a tool for autonomy and preparation for their reinsertion. “They loved it. They appreciate learning how to create these reusable solutions,” says Meredith proudly.

Meredith stresses the importance of access to information at all levels necessary to promote the economic and social empowerment of caregivers. “We need information to be accessible, clear, and to reach the territories where mothers are, and for public policies to recognize that caregiving is also work and that caregivers have rights,” says Meredith. “It is urgent to put care at the center because if we continue to speak only to those who are already empowered, we will continue to leave many behind,” warns Cortés.

Apañales promotes a vision of self-care that is built in community. “Breaking the silence, feeling accompanied, recognizing oneself in others. That is also self-care,” says Meredith. 

^{Photo: Courtesy of Meredith Cortés Bravo}

Initiatives that change lives 

The organization has also been part of dialogue instances promoted by UN Women, where they shared their experiences and proposals. “The fact that our voices as caregivers are not lost, but can feed studies, proposals, and concrete decisions, is already a huge step forward,” she stresses.

For Meredith, investing in projects led by women is not only fair, but strategic. “These initiatives arise from direct experience. When you invest in one women’s organization, you support many more. We function as a living support network, like a tree with many branches that reaches places where neither offices nor institutional programs can get. Through these initiatives, ties between women are strengthened, community is generated, and the voice of those who have been silent for a long time is activated.

Apañales’ message is clear: care must be a right, not a sentence to a precarious future: “It cannot continue to be something invisible, devalued, that impoverishes or marginalizes you. It must be a right guaranteed and respected by society,” concludes Meredith.

Cortés highlights the inexorable link between public policies and care, warning of the risks that exist today. “Public policies must guarantee that caregiving does not mean falling into economic bankruptcy. Today, that is exactly what is happening: a woman who stops her work activity to care, without support networks or institutional backing, faces economic, emotional, and social collapse. If she has no contract, if she has no access to a public care network to support her, she is completely unprotected,” warns Cortés.

Meredith reflects on persistent caregiving challenges. “Our system of licenses, childcare, and workspaces is designed as if we women don’t provide care. And that forces us to choose between parenting or working. In most cases, it means making us precarious in both areas,” highlights Meredith. “Public policies must start from this recognition: that care is a job, that there are many of us, and that without us nothing moves,” she says.

In a country where care work continues to fall almost exclusively on women, experiences such as Apañales' illuminate the path towards a more equitable future. A future where caring does not mean disappearing, but flourishing in community.