HIV/AIDS prevention, education and advocacy work has been a major focus area of CORE since 1990 – 1991 when the first cases started appearing in the state of Manipur. The first focused interventions were with intravenous drug users who were housed in Imphal Jail, Sajiwa in order to advocate for their rights and provide basic essential services for health including counseling for inmates and families, health care and testing facilities.

The experience gained in this initial intervention led to intensive involvement in the direction and management of the Continuum of Care Project, Manipur which was a pioneering project (supported by Oxfam India and WHO from 1994), with the objective of providing comprehensive care across the continuum of care-giving from home to hospitals engaging all stakeholders: families, community health care givers, NGOs and government agencies across the range of services that were needed and could be anticipated given the epidemiological character of the disease. The COCP experience was presented at the second International Conference on Community and Families affected by HIV/AIDS, Montreal, Canada in 1995 (oral paper presentation by CORE Director - health and human rights).

This broad based engagement led to support of advocacy for safe practices in hospitals and care facilities by the development of training manuals and handbooks for health care professionals and community.

CORE has also interfaced consistently with girls and young women who are at greater risk of contracting the infection due to their lifestyle situations and options or work risks including girls (children) who are commercially sexually exploited. Young women and girls from this subject group have also been trained as documentors and health and rights awareness raisers.

Network activities among organizations working among injecting drug users and HIV/AIDS continue in Manipur and India as a whole, as well as in the South Asia region. There is an initiative to also undertake a training course on documentation for five identified such organizations in Imphal this year. CORE has also been contributing to investigating and developing an understanding of the impact of long term armed conflict on the spread, prevalence and provision of care of HIV infection in the region.