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 WHAT 

 IS CARE 

 FOR YOU? 

whatiscare.org is an initiative of The Care Lab
Choose an option*

Thank you!

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Kindness and stopping to really listen

Care Professional
Australia

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Citizen
Afghanistan

putting aside time to be with someone, to care for their needs or wishes, to just be there in presence.

Care Activist
Singapore

Care is the act of noticing and responding. ;)

Care Activist
United States

Care in simple terms is a positive act of kindness. It is intuitive, a human instinct to care for others. What we care for depends on our culture, beliefs, relationships etc.

Citizen
United Arab Emirates

putting ourselves and others at the center of our existence

Student
United Kingdom

Care is self-respect.

Other
Spain

To be conscious of the value that everything around you holds: your mother, your dog, your favorite tree at the park...

And to be present and act to ensure they have everything they need to flourish, to exchange knowledge and toughts, to have fun with them, but also to know their boundaries and limits practicing respect.

Citizen
Italy

Care is to empathise with the person in front of you and to compromise in order to build together but without leaving your own person aside. Care is thinking, choosing and acting, not only for yourself but always taking the others into account.

Student
Italy

preocupar-te pel que t’envolta i per qui t’envolta procurant el seu benestar.
La cura crea teixits de pertinença i seguretat.
Si la cura fos sempre recíproca (tu cuides de mi i jo cuido de tu), el mon rutllaria molt millor. :)

Caregiver
Spain

Es entender las señales que emite mi cuerpo, porque si a mí cuerpo le pasa algo el me envía señales yo como dueña de el tengo que saber escucharlo, entenderlo, pero sobre todo hacerme cargo

Student
Peru

Es entender las señales que emite mi cuerpo, porque si algo le está pasando me envía señales mi tarea como dueña de mi cuerpo es entenderlas interpretarlas y sobretodo escucharlas y hacerme cargo

Student
Peru

Care means acknowledging the other. See the other. Is to look for the well-being of the other without expectations. Is putting oneself in someone else's shoes and trying to make life better for their specific needs. For me "to care", is the greatest act of kindness and love one human being can do for another.

ATT: Silvana

Student
Spain

attention, empathy and ability to treat the person holistically, while taking into account their beliefs and personality - and remaining knowledgeable and professional, yet accessible (QUITE demanding!)

Care Professional
Denmark

The ability to put someone/something as the priority of our actions. To frequently revisit the progress or our impact on that matter.

Student
Mexico

In September 2021, I submitted my PhD which included the following statement:

I am attuned to my embodiment in multiple acts of care. I am care-fully writing about the practices of holding together and repairing carescapes in one spacetime, whilst care-giving to my dementing mother in distant spacetimes, rendered possible through digital and embodied relations.
Making meaning from these knotted, irreducible processes of affect and abstraction, makes manifest the ambiguities of care-ing that are insoluble and incomplete as I both attempt to and observed of others, hold things together to carry on.

And while relations of care unfold and iterate over time, I am also mindful of the words of Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, that when it comes to care,

Care, caring, carer. Burdened words, contested words. ... Most of us need care, feel care, are cared for, or encounter care, in one way or another. Care is omnipresent, even through the effects of its absence. ... Its lack undoes, allows unravelling. To care can feel good; it can also feel awful. It can do good; it can oppress (2017, 1).


Academic
United Kingdom

Care is paying attention to another in order to act in its benefit. This doesn't mean not paying attention to oneself or other factors! Care's attention can be aligned or synchronized, or it can be jarring, discontinuous, syncopated. Paying attention to / caring for or about many things at once can be overwhelming.

Academic
United Kingdom

For me care is about balance, compassion, meaningfulness, the self and the other, reciprocity, responsibility

Student
Belgium

Care is a mixture of appreciation, compassion and selfless giving.

To care is to genuinely appreciate someone.

To have compassion for their struggles and suffering.

To selflessly give support in what they need.

To feel your heart full of joy and love when seeing the other person happy and thriving.

Care Activist
Spain

"Care is the act of being with another person and taking part in their suffering. It's an opportunity to connect in a deep way and learn from each other. It is not helping or fixing - but rather serving someone."

Caregiver
Spain

El cuidado es empatía, una entrega desinteresada por el bien de los demás. El cuidado también es amor propio.

Care Activist
Spain

"Caregiving is self-suffocating love."

Caregiver
Singapore

La cura és tenir en compte els propis interessos i els dels altres. És actuar de manera conscient, ser conscient de les repercussions de les seves accions i actuar per a la millora de l'individu en qüestió.

Citizen
Spain

Having a joind up care record so I dont have to explain my story 10 times
Seeing 1 person that understand all my conditions.
Being able to communicare with HCPs through a variety of mediums.
Feeling heard and that have HCPs have the time to care.

Other
-

La cura és un sentiment.
Un acte conscient, una actitud.

Tenir cura és estar atent a les necessitats i sentiments dels altres. Parar atenció a les conseqüències de les teves accions.

Tenir cura és obrir els ulls i el cor. Donar el teu temps i energia a algú que ho necessita.

La cura és sentir el caliu i l'afecte d'una altra persona a la teva pell.

La cura sosté la vida i fa que aquesta sigui una experiència digna i bonica de ser viscuda.

Care Activist
Spain

Care is a feeling.
It's also a conscious act—an attitude.

To Care is to pay attention to others' needs and feelings. Paying attention to the consequences of your actions.

To Care is to open your eyes and heart. Giving your time and energy to someone who needs it.

Care is when you feel the kindness and warmth of someone else in your skin.

Care sustains life and makes this life a worthy experience to be lived.

Care Activist
Spain

that people who have the resourses can and want to help. It's some ways a selfless act. You may not receive financial benefit but this is not your goal. Helping is the goal.

Student
-

For me, care is when you are kind, awere and empathic with your environment and the people of that, and you reflect on them too. You are not ignoring the things around you.
Care can be a protocol or it can be full of kindness and love.
As for me the best is when you taking care about what you love, what you feel close to you, becouse in this case you are totally in a personal connection with the topic. If it's personal, you will do your best.

Student
-

Care is when you do something for other people that they can't do on their own, something that they need help with. Care is when they don't feel ashamed in the situation.

Caregiver
-

Care is something we do for the wellbeing of other people, that do not necessarily directly benefit us, but feed the system of which we are a part of, so it feeds us as well in various ways.
Caring in this sense in an ideal system is also an investment, the energy and attention you give to those in need, in the cycle of human lives, comes back to you when you need caring, and this cycle is based on mutual trust and belief.

Citizen
-

emotional bond
not running away
beeing for something bigger than ourselves
listening to others, helping them

Citizen
-

"For me care is an attitude of compassion towards others, understanding their pain, issues, but also what makes them shine and being happy. Having this attitude for me is not necessary given, I feel I need to work on this every day consciously, until it becomes my way of life."

Care Activist
Spain

"For me care is making the challenge lighter, by helping, sharing, understanding, with empathy, in a close or distant relationship."

Other
-

"Thinking about the quality of life of others"

Other
-

"I understand CARE in the broadest sense as David Graeber states in his book in 2019 including care takers in health and education, waste management and so many other professionals that care for others during a 24hours day. AND then those who care in private, without being paid, with personal relations to the care receiver. As medical anthropologist I try too look holistically on care - who cares for whom (good or bad), why, how they care, professional/private/non-paid, how does a system support care of creates barriers for care. I ask myself often: How do we want to care for each other as society.
For context: I am currently building about a new research department within an NPO of the city government of Vienna with the focus on care studies."

Other
Austria

"Para mi el cuidado es una actitud y práctica de afecto, preservación y atención, donde se reconoce nuestra relación y valor por alguien o algo y su relación con nosotros.
El otro no sólo son personas, sino plantas, animales, la biósfera, también cosas y espacios que tienen nuestro afecto y que preservamos.
El cuidado se aleja de la dinámica de novedades y busca una permanencia por reconocer el valor de algo o alguien. Al reconocer ese valor y el afecto que le tenemos, procuramos su bien y su conservación por los medios que se requieran."

Academic
-

"To be looked after by someone, who carries your interest in their hearts, above and beyond, and asks for nothing in return."

Caregiver
Iceland

"Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every way you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can."

Other
Singapore

​"Care is, entering the world of the person whom you care for and understanding it."

Care Activist
Singapore
whatiscare.org is an initiative of The Care Lab
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