Students from Ball State's chapter of the International Justice Mission are standing for 27 hours at the Scramble Light from noon on Thursday to 3 p.m. on Friday to raise awareness of modern day slavery. In the event's second year, students from IJM will be joined by other student groups including University Singers, the Latino Student Union, and players from the football team.
The event is part of a larger, global "Stand for Freedom" event International Justice Mission holds every April. There will be 154 similar events in the month of April at other universities across the country.
"We wanted to present a united front against human trafficking," said Christina Franks, a junior journalism major and the organizer of the event.
There are 29.8 million people enslaved today, including an estimated 57,000-63,000 slaves in the U.S., according to the 2013 Global Slavery Index. Stephanie Metzger, vice president of IJM and junior social marginalization and human development major said modern slavery is characterized by coercion into forced labor.
"Ideally, I want people to become more aware [of slavery]," Metzger said. "If people become aware of the issue and decide to change their life in someway, then we are succeeding."
The group hopes teaming up with other organizations will make the message more powerful and reach more people.
"We want to show to Muncie, to Ball State, and the world that we are going to stand up against human trafficking and that we won't tolerate this in our world," Metzger said.
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