In 2005, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the commercial mail and express delivery company TNT established a drop-in Wellness Centre at the Mwanza border crossing in Malawi. The centre offered low-barrier access to information and health care for mobile transport workers and sex workers. It was the first step in a shared response to a common problem: responding to the threat HIV/AIDS to the transport sector and the communities with which it interacts.
UNAIDS and the International Transport Workers’ Federation recognized both the problem as well as the benefits of a shared response. In 2007, they joined with WFP and TNT in a unified platform dedicated to creating a network of access points or Wellness Centres along the major transport corridors in Africa. That platform is now known as North Star Alliance (North Star). In 2009 systems developer ORTEC joins as the fifth core partner.
