This course is part of the suite of offerings through the city’s network of manzanas del cuidado, or care blocks, an initiative of Mayor Claudia López that launched in October 2020 and has grown to 11 such centers around the city.(Photo courtesy Secretaría de la Mujer) “We are using the social infrastructure that already exists – health centers, community development centers, libraries, parks, schools – to offer social services for women,” López said.Today the Mazana del Cuidado de Bosa has over 50 different offerings, from Microsoft Office classes to STI screenings to financial literacy and entrepreneurship workshops to yoga and meditation to coaching for housing subsidy applications.Paula Herrera-Idarraga, a professor at Javeriana University who studies the care economy, acknowledges that the care blocks initiative is “more administrative and organizational” rather than “inventing from nothing.” However, her research justifies why the mayor’s office should focus on women caregivers.Herrera-Idarraga points to a local survey in which 44% of Bogotá women gave that reason when asked why they weren’t looking for work compared to just 5% of men."