Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses the ways in which the status of chronic illness of 20 Ethiopian HIV-positive women older than 20 years, living in precarious conditions, has shifted from causing extreme material and existential forms of insecurity to became a resource against uncertainty and disquiet.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on the results of intermittent fieldwork conducted in the city of Gondar, in Ethiopia, between November 2007 and November 2010, within a PhD research focusing on care and support that HIV/AIDS mass treatment programs provide for HIV-positive women. It deals with different forms of managing uncertainty and disquiet observed in the daily life of HIV-positive women older than 20 years.

In the first part, the analysis of the life stories of 20 HIV-positive women characterized by material and existential forms of insecurity, demonstrates that the emergence of HIV with different manifestations and consequences including opportunistic diseases and loss of children and partner, far from appearing as a «biographical disruption», simply aggravated their conditions of precariousness by weakening their already fragile social ties.

In the second part, by focusing on the absence of strong welfare strategies, and by taking into consideration the unconventional forms of work and employment as livelihood systems, the paper shows that the implementation of tertiary HIV-prevention programmes through new forms of social and economic inclusion of marginalized HIV-positive people, have contributed to stabilise their life courses. More particularly, in relation to the 20 HIV-positive women case studies, the paper points out that HIV, rather than being a mere status of chronic illness, results in a condition of life, which produces new social ties and which contributes positively in facing the situations of uncertainty and disquiet.