Filling in the gaps during a crisis of care: social and political constructions of lay care work during the HIV/AIDs epidemic and the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.

Ordinary people are a fundamental part of any social response to health emergencies. During Covid-19 informal, place-based groups of neighbours, volunteers and community members - many of them women - came together across the world to run community kitchens, distribute masks and sanitizer, contend with death and dying, and more. Yet, in a world where care work is in crisis, the role of ordinary people in an emergency response is often ignored, or reduced to how well they comply with the rules of state-led responses. Using interviews and archives to build a longitudinal perspective, I will contrast how people involved in life-sustaining care work formed part of the responses to the Covid-19 and HIV/AIDs emergencies in Cape Town. Findings are expected to show how adopting different approaches to valuing lay care work can strengthen emergency responses and offer alternatives for creating social change in the health system and broader society.