Tammy Bitanga didn’t choose a 30-year path of prostitution; she was victimized, violated and enslaved.

Her hanai father began sexually exploiting her when she was 4, she says, and the abuse continued until she reported it when she was 13. Authorities placed her in a foster home, where she was introduced to drugs, alcohol and partying.

She made her way to Waikiki one day and was scooped up by a pimp who put her on a plane headed for Alaska.

In Alaska, Bitanga worked at a massage parlor for a few months, servicing five to 10 men a day, she said. She got brave and befriended a pimp who helped her get back to Hawaii because her old pimp was on the run after allegedly shooting another pimp for stealing one of his girls.

"It’s not a thing where, ‘Oh, there’s no crime and there’s just such a happy life and everything is all grand,’" Bitanga explained to a group of public officials, concerned community members and volunteers gathered at Mililani Hongwanji on Saturday for a human trafficking awareness forum.

Once back in Hawaii, Bitanga returned to Waikiki before ending up back in the foster system. She graduated from high school pregnant and worked in nightclubs to support her daughter.

Eventually she landed a job as a receptionist for a local lawyer but continued to live a double life.

"Thankfully I have been restored, I have been healed," she said.

Soroptimist International of Central Oahu and the Mililani Hongwanji Buddhist Women’s Association put together the forum Bitanga attended to call attention to human trafficking as an issue that continues to plague the islands, albeit behind closed doors, and to observe national human trafficking day (Jan. 11) along with the state’s first-ever human trafficking month.

The goal of the event was to open community members’ eyes to subtle signs of trouble that crop up in unsuspecting areas and convey the importance of rehabilitating victims as well as educating Hawaii’s keiki — especially high-risk teens and adolescents such as runaways — of the dangers and warning signs of human trafficking.

Circuit Judge Edward Kubo, who participated in the panel discussion, said Waikiki is a hotbed for human trafficking because of the large tourist and military populations that congregate there, and that Hawaii is one of three points in a Pacific triangle made up of Alaska and major cities in California.

"If you think that it doesn’t happen in Hawaii, you’re fooling yourself," he said.

State Attorney General David Louie noted that society is starting to change its mindset regarding trafficked adults and children, especially girls and women involved in prostitution, seeing them as victims rather than criminals.

"It’s a terrible crime … and it can happen in your community," Louie said. "We have to be vigilant to protect our communities and protect our children."

To better help child victims of labor and sex trafficking, an organization called Courage House is hoping to open a licensed residential treatment facility in Hawaii in the near future.

"The trauma of what these kids go though cannot be ignored any longer," Courage Worldwide Hawaii volunteer director Jessica Munoz said.