LIBERTY, MO. ? Students at William Jewell College only wanted to help. But now they’ve 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 a 5K run-walk to raise money to fight slavery in Sudan. The fund-raiser is set for April 21.

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 raised.All proceeds are to benefit the American Anti-Slavery Group in Boston.

The nonprofit works with Christian Solidarity International to buy back villagers who were kidnapped and forced into slavery in Sudan’s civil war.

The practice, known as “slave redemption,” is heavily criticized by some international humanitarian groups who claim it perpetuates slavery and pumps money into a corrupt government’s agenda.

Slavery in Sudan is the byproduct of a civil war that has ravaged the east African nation since 1983.

No one knows exactly how many people are enslaved. Christian Solidarity International claims that between 1995 and 2001 it has redeemed 60,000 Sudanese slaves, paying between $33 and $100 each.

The group said it redeemed 2,435 slaves last month.But international humanitarian groups, including Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Children’s Fund, have criticized the practice.

“Knowledge that there are foreigners willing to pay to redeem slaves can only spur on unscrupulous individuals to make a business out of redemption,” Human Rights Watch said in the 2002 World Report.

“Unscrupulous middlemen may ‘borrow’ children who have never been abducted … thus foreigners intending to do good may be deceived,” according to the report.

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.”