Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 September 2001 Issue No.550
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Preparations and inaugurations

Keeping a busy schedule this week, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak was in the limelight at a number of developmental and cultural functions in, and near, the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, writes Nevine Khalil.

From top: Mrs Mubarak inaugurated Stanley bridge and attended a meeting in preparation for the inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

On Tuesday, Mrs Mubarak inaugurated the third branch of the Integrated Care Society (ICS) in the densely-populated district of El-Siyouf in Alexandria. The ICS centre will serve thousands of families by providing health care services, special education programmes and vocational training for women and children.

Championing the cause of women, Mrs Mubarak chaired the fifth and final preparatory meeting on Monday for the Extraordinary Arab Women's Summit to be held in Cairo on 11-12 November. The meeting was held at the coastal city of Borg El-Arab and attended by 18 representatives of Arab countries and women's organisations. Discussion focused on the creation of an Arab Women's Organisation (AWO) and the upcoming November summit. The AWO will be an umbrella for consultations among Arab women.

The first Arab Women's Summit was held in Cairo last November. At that event it was decided to hold such summits every two years and that the year 2001 would be the year of Arab women; hence this year's extraordinary summit.

In preparation for another high-profile event, Mrs Mubarak headed a meeting on Saturday to review preparations for next April's inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The meeting was attended by the Egyptian members of the library's board of trustees. The library is a revival of the ancient and highly-reputed Bibliotheca Alexandrina which was destroyed by fire in Graeco-Roman times. The new library will open its doors to the public in October for an experimental period of six weeks, while a soft opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is scheduled for next February ahead of the high-profile official inauguration on 23 April 2002.

Also on Saturday, and only a few kilometres away from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Mrs Mubarak officially inaugurated the seven-lane Stanley Bridge in Alexandria, which is part of a project to give a face-lift to the coastline of the Mediterranean city. The picturesque bridge linking traffic across Stanley Bay is a replica of a bridge built by the late King Farouk at the Al-Montazah Palace. Construction of the bridge cost LE70 million. With wide sidewalks for pedestrians on either side, the bridge spans 276 metres, 20 metres above the bay.

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