points of interest. Seeing the United Buddy Bears is like having a little tour of the world. There are interpretations written by artists, so you can learn about each country. The more you know about a country, the more you understand its people.
EQUALITY Here, all countries have the same space to show themselves off. This is very important, so that whether poor, rich, big or small, everyone meets at the same level. We want all countries to stand together: India and Pakistan, Turkey and Greece, Israel and Palestine.
THE BEAR
ABOVE: Pupils collecting money at a United Buddy Bear exhibition to build a school in Angola in partnership with UNICEF. RIGHT, ABOVE: Eva Herlitz with students of the new preschool in Tepa Tepa; most of these children are orphans whose parents have died of AIDS.
PEACE TALK Eva Herlitz, humanitarian and founder of the United Buddy Bears speaks about her work.
IN THE BEGINNING... In 2001, we displayed the bears in the streets of Berlin, and were going to auction them off for children’s organisations. But the bears were very successful, and the leaders of the city wanted to keep them there for longer. So, I started to think that if people liked the bears so much, maybe it would be possible to use the bears to spread a message that comes from my heart. So, I formed the United Buddy Bears.
STANDING TOGETHER It was my idea to have every bear represent a specific country, and all these countries standing hand-in-hand. Every bear is painted by an artist originally from the country his bear represents. The artists do the artwork because they want to showcase their culture and special 76
TRAVEL 3SIXTY˚
The bear is a heraldic figure of Berlin. For me it was important not to have a cute teddy bear or a very abstract bear. You can see there’s a lot of space for artists to do their artwork. Seeing the United Buddy Bears in a circle, this is a work of art – one big piece of art involving 143 artists from all over the world!
MESSAGE We don’t think we can change the world with this exhibition. We’re just one piece in a mosaic. The most important thing is education. You have to start with the children, and instil in them that everyone has the same rights, and teach them tolerance of other cultures. Children need to know how to stand hand-in-hand.
BUDDY BEAR HELP I support poor children in developing countries through the organisation; Buddy Bear Help. I’m involved with children in Sierra Leone at the moment. We’ve built schools in Malawi, paid for heart surgery in Bolivia, and done various things where we see we are needed. Through our artists, we’ve met people from around the world, and become involved in their problems. The income we get from Buddy Bear Help goes 100 percent to these projects.