Abstract/Summary

Within many communities in East Africa, people living with HIV are increasingly involved in delivering home-based care and healthcare for family members and peers. Such interdependent caring relations blur conventional boundaries between ‘care-givers’ and ‘care-recipients’, and constructions of 'service users' as dependent, passive recipients of healthcare. The participation of people living with HIV in healthcare provision, home-based care and peer support groups can enhance ‘relational autonomy’ for both care-givers and care-recipients, although such initiatives often play out in highly gendered ways. The care and support of people living with HIV, particularly the emotion work of caring, however, continues to be associated with women's and girls' assumed 'natural' nurturing roles and has been largely devalued and overlooked in HIV policy and practice to date.