'Women with self-esteem are healthy women': Community development in an urban settlement of Guayaquil

Abstract

CEPAM is an Ecuadorian women's NGO, which has an integrated approach to work with poor urban women on health issues, legal advice, and group formation, based on a gender analysis of life in the area. This account of its work in a poor urban settlement in Guayaquil describes how women came to understand that their health and well-being were determined by their status as poor urban women, and that as a result, they decided to set up their own health centre.