Wichita State students are taking a stand against Human Trafficking by literally standing for 27 hours Tuesday and Wednesday to raise awareness about the issue.

The event, “Stand for Freedom,” is one of 520 similar events being held around the nation this week in association with the International Justice Mission.

The 27 hours symbolize the estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking around the world.

The event begins in the Plaza of Heroines near Ablah Library at 11 a.m. Wednesday and continues until 2 p.m. Thursday.

Lectures, games and documentaries about trafficking will be shown throughout the event, with the overnight portion taking place in the Fairmount Commons from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m. Talks will be given by WSU social work assistant professor Karen Countryman-Roswurm and a human trafficking survivor. Countryman-Roswurm is a nationally known trafficking expert.

“I felt like since I live in Wichita it’s the perfect place to do something like this since it’s such an awful trafficking place,” event organizer and student Alexis Power said.

Wichita is rumored to be one of the most heavily trafficked cities in the nation due to its central location and highway access. Statistics are difficult to verify on the covert business, but the Stand for Freedom Campaign estimates that at least 27 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking.

“I know it’s pretty easy for people to just think of that as a number because you’re not seeing the actual people,” event organizer and WSU alumna Sarah Welch said. “That’s something really hard to grasp.”

Welch first heard about human trafficking at Passion 2013, a church conference in Atlanta, Ga. She watched documentaries about trafficking victims. One haunting account told about a Cambodian brothel where sex trade victims’ genitals were sewn together to give the impression that they were virgins.

The main goal of Stand for Freedom is awareness, with additional aims to raise funds. Money from the event will go to Project Butterfly, a YWCA resource for battered women.

“We want to give (participants) the resources to figure out where they want to get connected,” Power said.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, most women enter the sex trade between the ages of 11 and 13. Women are also forced into human trafficking through entry points of pornography, strip clubs and escort services. People who traffic humans are discovered through anonymous tips and undercover police officers.

International Justice Mission works in Asia, Africa and Latin America to discover human traffickers and rehabilitate their victims. The organization is comprised of 500 lawyers, social workers, investigators and other personnel.

“Once you hear about some of this stuff, you can’t ‘unhear’ it,” Welch said. “It just breaks my heart.”

Everyone is welcome to join in Stand for Freedom, for one hour or all 27.

The full event schedule and details on where to donate can be found on the group’s event page on Facebook.