 In recent times, there has been a spate in sexual violence and other related abuses, with the most recent being the case of Olarewaju Uyiminka, popularly known as Babajesha, allegedly harassing a 14-year-old. Sadly, this is just one out of many cases, some of which go unreported. To combat this menace, the Women at Risk International Foundation, Warrif, is campaigning for synergy between different institutions in society. Uteci Uweci Daniel was there for PLOS TV Africa and now brings us details. On April 28, 2021, videos of popular Yoruba actor Babajesha fondling and kissing a minor surface online, sparking outrageous reactions from members of the public, as well as being a matter of importance to organizations like the Women at Risk International Foundation, Warrif, which provides support to survivors of sexual assault and rape. At this event, the emphasis is to sensitize community leaders who serve as first responders to gender-based violence. Project Manager Warrif Chichi Ogbunaya speaks on the essence. And in 2017, when we started, we worked with 500 traditional better tendons who were trained from about eight local government areas on how to identify cases of gender-based violence, document those cases and also refer them to the Warrif Center for Proper Care from medical treatment to psychosocial support and legal aid. I'm looking at scaling up those projects to reach more local government areas across legal states, train more traditional better tendons, train more law enforcement officers because from our findings, we realize that a lot of them still don't understand how to handle these cases of rape and sexual violence. So it is our desire as an organization to reach more law enforcement officers to create an awareness through these trainings that we run to make them sensitive to handling cases of rape and sexual violence. And of course, our religious leaders because it's increasing, nowhere is safe. People are being raped in schools, people are raped in their places of work and even our religious centers, which is why we have decided to engage religious leaders. The Gatekeepers Project works with traditional birth attendants to help bring in survivors of sexual assault, rape and gender-based violence in the rural and urban communities. The primary people who are survivors of rape and sexual violence are mostly women and girls, right? And these traditional birth attendants, they engage these women, they engage young girls in their communities. As a result of that, we thought they were the best people to identify for those projects, they were the best to engage. They have been doing a lot of job in the community. Before I know Warrif, I can't be able to go to the police to go and report any gender-based we have been seeing in the community, but hence Warrif have come across now, we can be able to report to the police because we have been trained and we thought that they have been training the police officer and others member of the community. Participants at the sensitization program included traditional birth attendants, law enforcement agents, religious leaders amongst others, Uchechi Ubuhi Daniel reporting for Plus TV Africa. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.