1) Last week the #Yazidi community lost a true hero. Jameel Ghanem Chomer was a pivotal and constant figure of the humanitarian and advocacy response to the #YazidiGenocide. 
2) This man’s life deserves a much greater tribute than I can offer, but I do want to share some comments and images about his story and his service.
3) Jameel was a schoolteacher from Borek on the north side of #Sinjar Mountain. His family fled from the Islamic State (IS) attack on the morning of the genocide (Aug. 3, 2014).
4) When Jameel reached Dohuk, he found that hundreds of young men were eager to fight to save Shingal (Sinjar)—and the scores of thousands of Yazidis who were trapped on the mountain—from IS. But no local authorities were organizing a resistance effort.
5) So Jameel immediately began recruiting volunteers who were ready to give their lives to defend their people. In a few days, Jameel was transporting Yazidi men to Syria where the U.S.-supported #YPG began training them to combat the terrorism and resist the violent invasion.
6) Jameel was also instrumental in negotiating early Hashd al-Sha'bi support for Yazidi resistance. In Baghdad, he met with leaders of Shi'i forces to plead the Yazidi case, securing their pledge to fund fighters. He later publicly exposed corruption in how these funds were used.
7) Jameel did not join the combat. Instead, he focused on the humanitarian response. When the @YazdaOrg Dohuk office was first opened in early 2015, Jameel was its initial manager. He then served under a series of country directors as Yazda's most continual and unbroken presence.
8) Jameel's advocacy produced the "bitaqa program"—the first iteration of Iraqi government assistance for female survivors of IS enslavement. This program provided survivors with a government-issued card that entitled them to a monthly assistance stipend.
9) Jameel traveled to Baghdad many times to meet with the Directorate of Women's Protection within the Ministry of Social Affairs to develop the program. (Photo shows women being registered for the program in the Yazda office, 2015.)
10) In the genocide's aftermath, most Yazidi families with opportunity, means, and connections emigrated from Iraq to establish new lives in Western countries. In the Iraq War, Jameel had served as a translator for US forces—this gave him an easier path if he had wanted to leave.
11) But Jameel refused to leave. He remained all of these past 8½ years, serving his people selflessly. And further, for several years he refused a salary from Yazda. His family remained for years in an IDP camp, living off of his teacher's salary.
12) Jameel often pled with the authorities in the Department of Education to allow him to continue his humanitarian work instead of returning to the classroom; they generally obliged him.
13) When searching through my photos, I found it difficult to find images of Jameel alone. In most of them, he and I are together. This is because we worked hand-in-hand, on every project, every day. The work bonded us deeply, which now makes his passing very painful.
14) I relied on Jameel's experience, knowledge, and wisdom for most every project that I undertook. Some projects were spearheaded by him or grew out of his ideas. His mark is on almost everything that Yazda accomplished.
15) A key project in which Jameel was instrumental was the effort to open three Ta'akhi Schools in the IDP camps. In 2015, Jameel and I worked for months to convince the KRG to open these schools that created a pathway for students from Shingal to attend university in the KRI.
16) Normally, students from Shingal are not given equal admission priority in Kurdish universities, since Shingal is not part of the KRI. Famous Kurdish singer @rojinofficial joined us in this advocacy effort.
17) Though reluctant, the KRG eventually approved the proposal that Jameel had written, opening the Ta'akhi Schools. As a result, thousands of recently-displaced #Yazidi students received a college education.
18) In this photo, Jameel presents diplomas to students graduating from the Ta'akhi School in Shaariya:
19) After the graduation, Jameel stood for a photo in front of the government school building used by the Ta'akhi School, with the teachers, administrators, Yazda board member @laylakhoudeda, and scholar of Yazidism @tawusparez. Photo by @AdlayKejjan:
20) Jameel was also instrumental in working with the Australian authorities to create the resettlement program that established the #Australia's first #Yazidi community. Here he speaks to hundreds of Syrian-born Yazidi refugees about the application process (2016):
21) It was Jameel's idea to create Yazda's mobile medical clinic that served thousands of Yazidis clinging to life and struggling to rebuild in remote villages of Sinjar Mountain. The vehicle was donated by the @ZED_Deutschland:
22) Here, Jameel and the mobile medical team take a break at a Yazidi temple in a village on Shingal Mountain. The village was destroyed by Saddam and then slowly rebuilt by displaced Yazidis who took refuge from IS on the higher ground:
23) Jameel was part of countless aid campaigns to both the camps and to the pioneers of return/reconstruction in Sinjar; the latter were often overlooked and usually received no government or NGO support.
24) Here, Jameel speaks to a Yazidi man more than 100 years old. His sons were killed by IS and he was living in a tent on the mountain. He asked us, "Are there any terrorists nearby?" Jameel assured him that he was safe and promised to bring him medicine that he needed.
25) Jameel supervising the cutting of tarps during a winterization project to waterproof tents housing displaced people on the mountain:
26) Jameel speaking to Yazidi families upon a distribution of thousands of chickens:
28) Eggs were an important source of protein for children in families that had no meat:
29) Jameel provides instruction on the use of water filters during a distribution of hundreds of filters to families on Sinjar Mountain:
30) Jameel distributing rubber shoes to children with no shoes at Chilmera:
31) Here Jameel speaks with a 90-some-year-old man named Haider on top of Sinjar Mtn. He & his wife came out of their tent, hands raised to heaven, praising God and calling down blessings upon us, overjoyed at our presence after feeling isolated and receiving no visits from NGOs.
32) Jameel cuts the ribbon to inaugurate Qeleme Zerîn ("Golden Pen"), a project to motivate, support, and enrich displaced Yazidi university students, conceived by Yazidi intellectual Murad Alo (shown in second picture):
33) Jameel speaks during a meeting with elders of the village of Bakira, about their need for an elementary school. Their area had no school at all. The school was later built; this meeting was the moment it was founded:
34) Jameel cared deeply about the survivors of enslavement, their dignity, and their healing. Here he participates in a project to transport newly-rescued survivors to Lalish to receive blessings from Babashaykh:
35) Jameel participated in innumerable advocacy meetings and delegations, such as this one with Adama Dieng @AdviserAdaDieng, UN Undersecretary General and Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide (Nov. 7, 2015):
36) Also present in this meeting was @vandentoorn and, to the far right, Jamila Salih @SalihJamila, another hero who has recently been taken from us too soon. She worked tirelessly on women's rights and human rights with @UNIraq until her cancer became too advanced:
37) Jameel was a champion of good relations with others. He did not condescend to the less educated, the rural farmers, or the poor; he treated them as equals. He showed respect to others and in turn was respected. Jameel valued his people and was appreciated by all who knew him.
39) Jameel and kids laugh as some boys try to help by carrying heavy boxes during an aid delivery:
40) Jameel and an early team of nurses (before the mobile medical project was created) bringing health care to isolated villages on Shingal Mountain:
41) Jameel valued all fighters who made sacrifices to defend the Yazidi people, regardless of political affiliation, such as this old man whose family was associated with the #Peshmerga:
42) Here Jameel is visiting #YBŞ and #PKK fighters defending the front line with IS in #Sinjar City in 2015. It required sneaking through tunnels underground to avoid enemy fire. The visit was dangerous and Jameel was shot at by IS snipers:
43) Here Jameel is visiting Mazlum Shingal, #YBŞ commander, and some of his men. #Turkey now bombs and kills these Yazidi fighters—and those whom Jameel recruited—after receiving a green light from #Trump in 2017. The #Biden cabinet remains silent, supporting the Trump policy.
44) Our meeting with the #KRG's Minister of Education (Nov. 17, 2015) to present Jameel's proposal that the Ta'akhi Schools be opened:
45) Jameel worked tirelessly all these years toward a specific outcome: A Shingal free of external, partisan control and the preservation of the Yazidi homeland to ensure the survival of his people. This work remains unfinished, but Jameel's role is now complete.
46) Jameel refused to be silenced in an environment of fear; he was committed to speaking the truth about #KDP responsibility in the genocide and the blockade that halted recovery and kept IDPs trapped in camps, sharing these facts with many officials. May we follow his example.
47) Jameel sits with Hajji Hameed Taalo who lost more than 70 relatives to killing and enslavement:
48) Jameel sitting with Shaheen, another hero who gave his life in humanitarian service, and Shaheen's father. Shaheen's father was committed to rebuilding #Sinjar. He told us, "This is my country and I will never leave it."
49) Jameel saying prayers in a Yazidi temple:
50) Jameel with the previous Babashaykh:
51) Jameel suffered from diabetes and heart issues. On Friday, December 30, Jameel was feeling chest pain while coughing. His son took him to see a doctor at Sheelan Private Hospital in Dohuk, which they assumed would be of higher quality than the government hospital.
52) Jameel told the doctor that he'd had a previous heart attack, was supposed to have a heart operation, and suffered from high blood pressure. He also reported feeling pain in his chest and left hand and shoulder when coughing.
53) The doctor only treated Jameel for flu-like symptoms. He did not do any tests, did not take his blood pressure, and did not perform an ECG. After Jameel received an injection that the family didn't understand, they were sent home. Jameel died hours later.
54) Iraq's medical system is sorely deficient. Countless people die preventable deaths due to poor doctor education, lack of training, corruption, and the absence of quality equipment. Even if the doctor had performed an ECG, would he have known how to read it? Or how to act?
55) Jameel has been buried at Sharfeddin in Shingal. He leaves behind his wife and three children—Sheelan, Sulaiman, Shahwan—as well as the thousands whom his life touched. Despite the tragedy of his death, we can celebrate Jameel’s life and his fight for the rights of others.
56) Jameel's priority was not his own family’s success, but the betterment of the #Yazidi people, the survivors, the wounded, the broken, the children. May we always remember his inspiring work and many sacrifices.
(Photos in #1, #37, & #56 by @mattswillingham)
Yazda @YazdaOrg's announcement of Jameel's death:
https://twitter.com/YazdaOrg/status/1608757059146887171
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