Yazmin Westin always empathized with the disadvantaged. So when Migros Aid was formed in 2017 she became an instrumental volunteer with the group that was using space at her church in the Speedway area of Indianapolis.
“She was always an inspiration and encouragement to me by all the ways she helped out,” said Joel Vestal, Migros Aid’s founder.
Yazmin died in 2018 at the age of 46 after a courageous battle with cancer. Her family wants to honor her memory by creating the Yazmin Jamal Westin Memorial Fund at Migros Aid, Inc.
The fund will be used to support the work of Migros Aid, which seeks to empower the immigrant and refugee community in Indianapolis which number upwards of 130,000. The support will be for sustaining the numerous programs of Migros Aid like mentoring and tutoring of refugee students who struggle in their education. The Yazmin Westin Memorial Fund has been established by her family in December 2022.
Yazmin was an active member of Speedway Baptist Church. She freely donated her time, clothes and skills in cooking and childcare as a volunteer at Migros Aid in the beginning of Migros
Read more: Yazmin Westin Memorial Fund Established by Family to Benefit Migros Aid, Inc.“Yazmin was so foundational and faithfully active in our beginnings as a new organization,” remembers Vestal. “She donated so many personal items to newly arriving families. I remember so many new volunteers that called or emailed me and told me that Yazmin had told them about us. She cooked so many meals for our weekly outreach event called English Club at the time.”
Yazmins interest in Migros Aid and in helping the local immigrant population tied back into her family history; her father Jamal Masud was born in Palestine in 1945. He struck out early to find work and help support his family, and at the age of 14 travelled by ship to Brazil. Following work and family connections, led him to the Caribbean, where he met and married Carmen Cintron-Green in Puerto Rico and later to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Yazmin, the first of 5 children, was born in St. Croix in 1971, and in 1976 the family moved to Illinois.
She grew up in the midwest, graduating from high school as salutatorian. She received a double bachelor’s degree in Sociology and English Literature. She married her college sweetheart Eric Westin in 1995 and they had four children, which they raised in the Indianapolis metro area.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation towards the Yazmin Westin Memorial Fund, you can do it two different ways.
Click here to make an online donation. (Click on Yazmin Westin Memorial Fund in drop down menu)
Or Mail a donation to:
Migros Aid, Inc. P.O. Box 20086 Indianapolis IN 46220. Include a note with your gift, “For Yazmin Westin Memorial Fund”
