LIBERTY, Mo. -- Students at William Jewell College only wanted to help. But now they have found themselves in the middle of an international debate about atrocities in Africa.

For their final class project, 12 students in the Pryor Leadership Studies program organized the Freedom 5K run-walk April 21 to raise money to fight slavery in Sudan.

But when the Pryor students recently asked the Student Senate for $200 to help publicize the event, they were rebuffed. And now about half of the 21 student senators are among a growing group of detractors opposing the event.

The problem lies with who gets the money that will be raised.

All proceeds are to benefit the American Anti-Slavery Group in Boston. The nonprofit works with Christian Solidarity International, based in Switzerland, to buy back villagers who were kidnapped and forced into slavery in Sudan's civil war.

The practice is heavily criticized by some international humanitarian groups who claim it perpetuates slavery and pumps money into a corrupt government's agenda.

Pryor instructor Todd Long is taken aback by the dispute.

"Our students know that the direction they're taking isn't going to solve the slavery problem," he said. "But it will bring awareness to it, and it will help."