The Diocese in Europe has raised over €23,000 for the Ras Morbat Eye Clinic in Aden, through an Advent Appeal launched by the Right Reverend Robert Innes, Bishop in Europe—a remarkable sum that will have a significant impact on the work of the clinic and its staff.

Thanking Bishop Robert on behalf of the staff of Ras Morbat and the people of Cyprus and the Gulf, Bishop Sean expressed his profound gratitude.

“The clinic welcomes the poor, refugees and displaced people in Yemen, offering essential eye care to all,” said Bishop Sean. “The compassionate generosity of our brothers and sisters of the Diocese in Europe will go a long way to maintain the provision of this mission.”

One of the poorest countries in the world, more than a decade of conflict has left in its wake a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen: acute hunger, disease, hundreds of thousands killed, and many, especially children, sustaining life-changing injuries.

Launching his Appeal, Bishop Robert said his “hope and prayer” was to raise enough money to support clinic running costs for three months—€15k. The generous donors of the Diocese in Europe contributed well over that.

As Bishop Robert noted in his Appeal, the Yemeni public health sector is “stretched beyond capacity and in most places has to focus on urgent survival needs, which means general eye care is marginalised. Yet eye care is much needed: Yemen’s harsh sunlight contributes to vision problems in children and especially older people, with the onset of glaucoma and cataract often happening at younger ages than in Europe.”

The Ras Morbat Clinic was established in 1996 within the compound of Christ Church Aden (consecrated in 1864), as a partnership between the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf and the Ministry of Health.

It was, and remains, as Bishop Robert says, “a good example of compassion and care for people in need regardless of religious or tribal identities”.

To find out more about Ras Morbat or to make a donation, please visit https://rasmorbatclinic.org/contact/