S6:E5 - Lenina Rassool on the Womxn Show, covering GBV, and finding support in community

Today on the podcast I’m talking with Lenina Rassool.

 

Lenina is the producer and presenter of The Womxn Show, a weekly TV show produced by Cape Town TV that focuses on gender-based violence and gender justice. The show launched in 2019 and since then has aired over 100 episodes – an incredible achievement.

 

For listeners who want to go and check it out, you can watch it on Cape Town TV or DSTV 263 on Sundays at 6pm, Tuesdays at 11am, and Thursdays at 9pm. You can also watch it on YouTube.

 

But the Womxn Show was not Lenina’s first foray into covering these issues. She has 15+ years of experience as a journalist, with a focus on human rights and social justice. She has worked for the mainstream media including for Femina Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Independent Newspapers before moving into the non-profit sector, producing content across print and web platforms at Activate! Change Drivers and OpenUp (then Code for South Africa).

 

In 2017, she started at Cape Town TV as news editor and anchor of Our City News, then Deputy Director of the station in 2018 where she went on to produce the Womxn Show.

 

So today I’m going to be talking with Lenina about her work as a journalist, about the importance of covering GBV as an issue, and about the ways she’s found to take care of herself while doing this work.