Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated Wednesday night the United Buddy Bears exhibition.
The exhibition, featuring 131 bears, representing the United Nations members, is being held for the first time in an Arab country, in Egypt after 10 exhibitions - including fantastic locations like Berlin, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Tokyo and Sydney.
Following the invitation of the Governor of Cairo Abdul Azim Wazir, the United Buddy Bears stands in the very heart of the metropolis with its 16 million inhabitants on the Gazira Promenade (Zamalek Island)- right on the banks of the River Nile - from April 11 to May 19 2007.
School trips will be organized on a daily basis, and 15,000 visitors are expected to tour this exhibit.
A lot of people have supported the United Buddy Bears on their journey around the world.
For the Cairo exhibition, two very important personalities have agreed to become patrons of the exhibition.
Mrs. Mubarak, will be the Egyptian patron and the former German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, will be the patron on behalf of Germany for the United Buddy Bears exhibition in Cairo.
At the last exhibition in Vienna (Autumn 2006), Austria, Serbia and Zambia were represented by new Buddy Bears and their predecessors were sold at an auction in aid of UNICEF.
In Cairo, Peru will be represented by a new Buddy Bear and Myanmar (Burma) will take part in a United Buddy Bears exhibition for the very first time.
A total of 138 Buddy Bears will stand together hand in hand, among them all the neighboring countries of Egypt.