Some say the little things are what matters. Rebecca Cruise, an adjunct professor for the School of International and Area Studies, is living proof.

Cruise was recently named a board member for the Vilakazi Foundation, an organization that works to aid poverty-stricken children in South Africa.

“Rebecca has taught school and just got back from a trip to Italy with OU and they helped some people on the last day of the trip and she realized every little bit helps,” said Leigh Jacobs, president and founder of the Vilakazi Foundation.

A 2007 trip to South Africa planted the idea of this foundation in the minds of Jacobs and his wife, Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs. This was the first time Carrie, who is from the U.S., had ever witnessed such poverty. Leigh, a South Africa native, had grown up among it and was accustomed to their standards of living.

After the birth of their daughter in 2009, Leigh and Carrie were inspired to help children in South Africa by providing them with necessities that promoted their health and education.

Cruise was an active member of the foundation before becoming a director.

She volunteered at various events and tried to increase awareness and membership to the foundation.

Cruise teaches at OU and said she is always telling her students to be aware about what is going on in the world and encouraging them to get involved.

“I decided if I was going to talk to the talk I needed to walk the walk,” Cruise said.

Aside from teaching and working with the Vilakazi Foundation, Cruise is also a research fellow. Cruise works with Suzette Grillot, International Programs Center associate director, on a project assessing the security of seaports around the world.

Cruise and Grillot have traveled around the world together and will visit eight Latin American countries as part of their seaport research.

“I know Rebecca is a very compassionate and sensitive person who is concerned about other cultures and the plight of those in other societies,” said Grillot, who knows Cruise as a student, colleague, coauthor and friend.

The Vilakazi Foundation has hosted several fundraising events, including a Christmas dinner last December that raised $700 and a wine-tasting in May that raised $2,500, Leigh said. The money was used to provide supplies for a Montessori school in South Africa.

Although Vilakazi is a foundation right now, Leigh aims for it to evolve into a non-profit within the next couple years.