OLYMPIA, Wash. - An Olympia woman testified in Wash., D.C. Thursday about her traumatic childhood experience, being bought and sold as a modern-day slave in India. She's now working to help other innocent victims who cannot protect themselves.   

Rani Hong and her husband Trong Hong are dedicating their lives to helping other vulnerable women and children after surviving their own traumatic childhoods.

KING 5 interviewed Rani's husband, Trong Hong, earlier this month. At the age of 9, his father put him on a Vietnamese refugee boat to escape communism. He survived pirate raids and a shipwreck, only to live for the next two years on an isolated island. 

He later came to Washington state, started a new life, and met and married Rani. 

Now 34, she shared her emotional story to bring attention to the crime of human trafficking, in which thousands of victims sold into slavery.

Deep in Fiji’s jungle, away from the tourist beaches, innocent children have yet to learn they are the products of modern day slavery.

Most will never know their fathers, as their mothers are human trafficking victims who were sold, used and abandoned, like Nalini.

“When I was 15, I was actually sold by my mom and her cousin,” she said.

“You just can't imagine what it feels like when somebody says. ‘You were sold, you're a commodity, and you’re a profit for somebody else,’” Rani said.

Her earliest memories of India are painful

“I would cry, day in, day out, just crying for mom, ‘where are you mom?  Where are you?’” she recalled.

KING

Rani Hong told her own story at the Conference on Survivors of Human Trafficking in Wash., D.C., Thursday.

Her mother never came. At age 7, Rani remembers extreme loneliness and violent strangers.

“If I cried, he didn't care,” she said. “He would just do more beatings, and things like that.”

Then, everything went black.

“There was so much pain, so much trauma, that I blocked it out,” she said. “That was the only way I could cope, the only way I could survive.

“I just wanted someone to take care of me and love me.”

She found love and nurturing at a home in Olympia, where a woman adopted her and gave her a new life.

There she met and married Trong Hong. They had children and grew a successful construction business.

It wasn't until a friend arranged a trip that Rani reunited with her mother and family in India, 20 years after she last saw them.

Piece-by-piece, Rani’s shocking childhood was revealed. 

“I was absolutely crushed,” she said. “I couldn't imagine -- this was my life we're taking about-- and that somebody would sell me?”

Rani Hong showed this picture of herself as a child, after her traumatic experiences.

Rani's family in India was poor, and her father ill.  A trusted woman offered to help them. Rani's mother thought the woman was sending her daughter to boarding school. That woman betrayed them.

“She sold me, then the child broker had the ownership, then he sold me again, so I do know at least two times that I was sold,” Rani said.

She showed a picture of herself.

“I look physically and mentally ill, after going through the torture, pain and everything,” she said.

Until that trip to India Rani believed she'd been abandoned. The revelation she was sold nearly killed her.

“I went into depression and wanted to end my life just because of the tragedy, ou just can't imagine what it feels like,” she said.

“I remember going to bed holding my Bible, because that was the only security I had and that's how I made it through.”

She has transformed her hurt into a passion, helping create laws in Washington state, and now, testifying before Congress.

Rani and her husband Trong use the profits from their Olympia business to fund a foundation.  They're partnering with others to build homes for 23 single mothers and their children and give them a fresh start.

“All girls in Fiji have something to look forward to for the day...working in the bakery, the school,” said Linda Smith of Shared Hope International.

Rani's heart continues to heal as she brings hope to the next generation.

KING

Trong and Rani Hong, who have both had traumatic childhoods, are now involved in helping victims of slavery.

“God has called me to be a voice, for those thousands of victims sold into slavery,” she said.   

Human trafficking is not just a Third World problem. Studies show the U.S. is also a destination for victims, where they are often exploited for sex or forced labor.

Annually, about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders, while millions are trafficked within their own countries, including 14,500 to 17,500 in the United States, according to the State Department.