American volunteer teacher buried in Shingal, as he requested

An American volunteer teacher who passed away in Duhok from a stroke on July 3 was buried in Sinjar (Shingal) based on his request.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – An American volunteer teacher who passed away in Duhok from a stroke on July 3 was buried in Sinjar (Shingal) based on his request.

Mr. Lee, whose full name is Leland Standford Scott, was voluntarily teaching at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp of Bajed Kandala 2, located in the Province of Duhok, Kurdistan Region.

He was a 67-year-old member of the Joint Help for Kurdistan NGO and taught English to displaced Kurdish Ezidi students.

In a ceremony on July 21, he was buried in the Ezidi shrine of Sharfaddin in Shingal. Many Ezidis and religious figures attended the funeral.  Mr. Lee's coffin was covered with the American and Kurdistan flags and decorated by flowers that his students donated.

The chairwoman of Joint Help for Kurdistan Namam Ghafouri read Mr. Lee’s family's speech and highlighted the teacher's role in helping the displaced.

Moreover, Qassem Shasho, Peshmerga Commander of Ezidi forces in Shingal, told Kurdistan24 that Mr. Lee “is among our martyred; we count him as one of our own,” Shasho said.

“We promised to visit his grave with flowers, the same way we care about our other martyred,” Shasho continued. “We as Ezidis owe him a lot for what he did for our children in the camps.”

[Ezidi people holding Mr. Lee's photo, showing respect for his volunteer services. July 21, 2016. (Photo: Kurdistan24)]

 

Mr. Lee is a retired Maui, Hawaii police officer who joined the NGO at the beginning of 2016. “He was a great teacher. He taught English in a school during the day and in the evenings, he would go around the entire camp to offer extra lessons in our clinic,” his organization said in a statement.

During the funeral, a priest highlighted the peaceful co-existence among different religions in the Kurdistan Region. “We have said before that soil is soil regardless of which religion lives in it, be it Ezidi, Christian or Muslim,” the priest said.

“Mr. Lee served and helped our nation,” he added. “We respect him for what he has done for Kurds, and we will bury him wherever he requested.”

 

Editing by Ava Homa
(Additional reporting by Ni’mat Maronisi)