WATCH: Ezidi IDPs hold Christmas for fallen American volunteer

SHINGAL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kurdish Yezidi’s (Ezidi) held a Christmas ceremony for a fallen American volunteer who taught English lessons to displaced Ezidis in the Kurdistan Region.

On Dec. 24, some of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the camp of Baget Kandala visited the tomb of Leland Standford Scott, known as Mr. Lee, in the city of Sinjar (Shingal), southwestern Kurdistan Region.

Mr. Lee’s students and friends praised him and said they came to hold the first Christmas Eve following his death as respect for his work as a foreign volunteer teacher.

“He loved us all, and we loved him so much. We came here to tell him Merry Christmas, and we miss you so much,” one of the IDP students taught by Mr. Lee told Kurdistan24 correspondent Chakdar Jamal.

Mr. Lee was a 67-year-old member of the Joint Help for Kurdistan NGO and taught the English language to displaced Kurdish Ezidi students for four months.

In a ceremony on July 21, he was buried in the Ezidi shrine of Sharfaddin in Shingal where many Ezidis and religious figures attended the funeral.  

Mr. Lee’s coffin was covered with the American and Kurdistan flags, and decorated with flowers his students had 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, a Peshmerga commander of the Ezidi forces in Shingal accompanied with Ezidi IDPs, previously told Kurdistan24 Mr. Lee was “among our martyred; we count him as one of our own.”

“We promised to visit his grave with flowers, the same way we care about our other martyred,” Shasho continued.

“We Ezidis owe him a lot for what he did for our children in the camps,” the Peshmerga added.

Mr. Lee was a retired Maui, Hawaii police officer who joined the NGO at the beginning of 2016.

“He was a great teacher. He taught English 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 July statement.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting by Chakdar Jamal)