People dream their whole lives just to visit where I live. People save their life earnings just to vacation where I live. Hawaii is known as paradise. Hawaii is where I was born and raised. Hawaii is where I was sex trafficked. My name is Kalei Grant and I’m a survivor advocate of sex trafficking. Before I share my story, I ask that you take a moment and think about your daughter, your son, your family members, those that are closest to you, because this can happen to anyone.

I was born and raised on the island of Oahu, which is the main island in the state of Hawaii. I grew up from a working-class family. I enjoyed playing soccer as a kid. I attended private school my whole life. After high school, I went on to college. I had a career. I got married to someone who was a Marine. We had a child. Then, at the age of 25, I found myself divorced, getting back into the social scene, bars, nightclubs.

It was around Pro Bowl in Hawaii where they had a lot of large events and parties surrounding the Pro Bowl. It was one night that I met a man in a nightclub. At that time, it seemed genuine, it seemed like he was just trying to get to know me, everything about me, where I lived where I worked, where my daughter went to school, where my grandmother and mother lived. At the end of the two weeks, he drove me to the track and he said, “This is the truth. I'm a pimp I own an escort agency and this is what you would do for me.”

I remember sitting there shocked in disbelief. I was never exposed to violence. Then, in that next moment, he got out of the vehicle and started to violently beat all the girls and women he had out there working for him until they were covered in blood, and I remember sitting there in his Range Rover thinking how am I ever going to get away from this man. He returned to the car and he said now if you don't do what I say, or if you tell the police, I will kill you. I will kill your daughter, I will kill your mother, your grandmother. After he just demonstrated that act of violence, I was fully convinced that he would do what he said. I was horrified. I didn't know who to turn to, or what to do next, or how to get away from him. Those two weeks turned into two years of my life. Every single day fighting trying to get away from him but then he would find me and the abuse grew worse. Being raped and abused started to be common in my life. I felt like I was living a nightmare.