only on decorahnews.com: A trip to Kenya changed the life of the Luther College Board of Regents Chair

yes

In 2005 Luther College Board of Regents Chair Paula Meyer took a vacation to Kenya, to take photos of the animals she saw on safari.

She was just hours away from leaving Nairobi, Kenya and flying home when she met a Lutheran minister who asked her to sponsor a Kenyan child's education by raising $500 a year,  Meyer told the Luther College Women's Club on Tuesday that she might have turned down the request, but something caused her to say "Yes."

Now, six years later, the charity she co-founded, Friends of Ngong Road, sponsors the education of 330 kids in Kenya.

While Meyer admits there are many more children in the slums of Nairobi who could use help, "Even if we can only help a few, it would be better than if we did nothing at all."

So her organization sponsors 225 primary school students and 98 second school students in Kenya, helping them not only by paying for books and other school supplies, but making sure they get fed well, too.

Meyer says she hasn't regretted saying "yes" to the minister's request for help.  "It has been one of the richest experiences of my life," she told the Luther College audience.