Take Back the Night looks to make Mount Pleasant more aware of human sex trafficking.

Headed by the student organization Take Back the Night, the annual rally will start at 6 p.m. today in the Bovee University Center Auditorium with a lecture about human sex trafficking. The Take Back the Night march will start at 7:30 p.m.

The speakers, prosecutor Bridgette Carr and her client, Katya, who was a victim of sexual trafficking, will discuss the issue and talk about their struggle.

“(Katya) was trafficked in Detroit,” said Erica Ray, Take Back the Night member and CMU alumnus. “She was originally from Ukraine.”

Nicki Amore, Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates member and a Macomb sophomore, warns of the lack of knowledge about the issue.

“We need to spread awareness,” she said. “Most people don’t even know that (human trafficking) is going on.”

The march will end at 8 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Library with the characteristic speak out.

The event has a rich history, and it is notorious around the world as a testimony against sexual abuse and violence.

Originally under the title “Reclaim the Night,” the first march took place in Belgium in 1976 by a group of feminists frustrated with the recent spree of sexual crimes.

But the event is not new to CMU.

“It has been in Mount Pleasant for 28 years,” Ray said.

The candlelit march will help send a message, said Amanda Hanner, CMU alumna and former SAPA member.

“I worked with this issue for seven years,” Hanner said. “It’s not just women. Men and children are (victims of violence).”

Ray said the only way to fight is to raise awareness.

“This gives our community a chance to say, ‘No, we’re not going to take that,’” she said.

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