St. Al's Endowment
As a result of the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, Boeing Corporation established the Boeing Community Investment Fund (BCIF) and committed to make gifts to charity in the names of the 346 people who perished in the crashes. Each person’s family could identify charities to support and Boeing would designate $144,500 in gifts in honor of each of the deceased.
As many of you know, one of our friends, employees, Board members, and biggest advocates, Cedric Galia Asiavugwa, lost his life on the Ethiopian Air flight. This was, and continues to be, a huge personal and professional loss for St. Al’s and School of Hope.
Cedric left behind his wife Linet, son Jabali, his parents and three brothers. Cedric’s wife nominated St. Aloysius Gonzaga for this funding and we recently learned that the school would receive $395,700, constituting funds given in Cedric’s honor, funds designated by another family, and additional funds designated by the BCIF.
This gift will allow us to establish an endowment to help support the long-term financial stability of the school and generate interest income from investments to provide scholarships for needy students. Cedric’s widow, Linet, is very pleased that the funds will be used for scholarships. She said, "Cedric was very committed to the long-term sustainability of St. Aloysius as a school serving needy students. The endowment fund will support the realization of his hopes."
For those who did not know Cedric, he was extraordinarily kind, positive, generous, and driven. It was baffling to all who knew him that he could successfully juggle Georgetown law school, campus ministry, Residential Advisor responsibilities, School of Hope Foundation, and still have time to help numerous others in the US and in Kenya. He was passionate about human rights, especially rights of women and refugees. You can read more about Cedric’s life and works here.
Cedric was set to graduate from Georgetown Law in May of 2019. That month Georgetown hosted his family from Kenya in DC, held a memorial service for Cedric, and planted a tree in the law quad in his honor.
As another Board member reflected in a Memorial Mass, “Cedric knew how to love genuinely and lived life to its fullest. In his honor we strive to keep his zeal and memory alive to continue the good works and the dreams he was passionately involved in.”