KAILUA-KONA— It was a short speech, but impactful.
It was about the life of Tammy Bitanga, who was a victim of child sex trafficking and exploitation but now works as a speaker for Hoola Na Pua, an advocacy group, and it offered a glimpse into a world that exists outside of the ones the crowd gathered Friday night at the University of Nations knew.
“I thought I got myself into the mess,” she told the crowd at the beginning of the two-day conference on raising awareness about sex trafficking.
Bitanga was exploited by her father when she was 4 years old. After years of “wearing a mask,” she finally worked up the strength to tell people at the age of 12.
After that, she entered foster care, a step down from her “well-to-do family” to a place where toothpaste was not always available. She remembers carrying a lot of pain from the abuse, feelings of abandonment and anger that she had to leave her mother and little sister.
She never had therapy for the incest, nor did she find an effective way to deal with the pain. It was in this mental position she heard from other girls in the foster home that being a prostitute wasn’t that bad and “somewhat glamorous” and her downward spiral escalated.
She and some friends went out, had some wine, smoked some marijuana and met some guys on mopeds. She met “the buff guy” and partied, she said, and later he used that against her.
“I guess that cocaine’s not free. And that pot’s not free. And there’s another girl living here,” she said of the relationship that led her to Alaska, where she was raped, robbed and threatened with guns.
She finally came back to Hawaii, carrying even more pain and confusion.
Bitanaga, still a teenager, turned herself in to her social worker, re-entered school and tried to have a normal life
It didn’t work, in large part because “unhealthy people don’t normally have healthy relationships,” she said. She had a son and would, at times, “do things on the side” to make sure they had everything.
It wasn’t until she saw a movie on trafficking through her church’s women’s group that she came to the realization that had been her life. She realized painfully that she was a child coerced into sex.
Resources are something that the state currently doesn’t provide enough of to fight child sex trafficking, said Jessica Munoz, founder of Hoola Na Pua, the advocacy group assisting with the conference.
The goal is to make sure there are more resources and more assistance available.
Although Bitanga is from Oahu, the problem isn’t solely there, said Munoz.
“It’s a lot more prevalent on the neighbor islands than anyone realizes,” Munoz said, and the FBI is dealing with cases constantly.
It’s families exploiting children, partners using their connection and people from off-island, she said.
The group had begun planning this event months ahead, and the arrest of Michael Patrakis, 48, Kailua-Kona, on a charge of allegedly pimping a 15-year-old girl only underscores it’s necessity, Munoz said.
She met with five pimps in San Quentin, the maximum-security prison in California. All five had worked in Hawaii, saying it was easy in the state.
The event continues from 8 a.m. to noon today, with Holoholo supporting the event.
Attendees will finish the day “knowing every detail there is to know about trafficking,” Munoz said.