Birmingham: COPE hosted a spectacular charity dinner to celebrate 1000 waterpumps funded and installed in Pakistan. The event was co-hosted by Nasrat Rafiq, Chairperson of COPE and Mohammed Basharat at the beautiful venue of Crystal Plaza. Trustees Rehana Rafiq, Sofia Tariq and Shabnem Naz led the well organised and disciplined team of volunteers. A full house of 500 people were mesmerised to learn about COPE’s journey so far where thousands of people have benefitted from the wide breadth of projects addressing all aspects of social welfare. COPE’s Water Project consisting of waterpumps, wells, solar stations and Filtration plants alone benefitted over 100,000 people. In addition, COPE has built schools, Masjid, sponsored orphan weddings, built homes, ran Vocational Training programmes, facilitated Enterprise opportunities, funded cataract operations, provided wheelchairs, food packs to those affected by COVID closures and winter packs. A campaign to build 99 Masjid s each in one of Allah’s beautiful names is also well under way and a quarter of the way there. COPE proudly launched a brand new project for Elderly People which will provide much needed support particularly to homeless and abandoned elderly people. The event was a major success and very well attended with support from the business community, charities and the wider community. An awards ceremony to appreciate volunteers and donors completed a very successful night of fundraising and awareness raising. In attendance were Salma Yaqoob Former Candidate for Mayor of West Midlands, Dr Waqar Azmi OBE Chairman Remembering Srebrenica UK, Haji Shabbir Hussain, Tariq Lohar, Habib Rehman Bem, Fatima, Zobina Kauser, Saleem Shahzad, Ather Saddiqui, Masood Mushtaq, Mohammed Zubair, Sabooh Uddin, Qari Farhan Saddiqui, Khadim, Alan, Saif, Mohammed Iqbal, Saima Sheikh, Shazia Bashir, Ruby Tariq, Gazalah Ahmed, Saimna Rehman and many others. Report by S M IRFAN TAHIR Photojournalist / Member National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Great Britain.