Book tackles reality

The outcome of this revelation was the best-seller, Unlucky in Love, as the author felt more confident and able to share her experiences with the world. It therefore was logical that Tendayi, activist that she is, would put pen to paper in a quest to further educate the people on positive living.
Dear Cousin is an educating inspirational epistolary focusing on the subject that is close to her heart.
Published by Public Personali-ties Against Aids Trust, offers a peek into the life of the activist as a person living with HIV. The epistolary genre Tendayi employs is most appropriate in that it reveals the intimate views and experiences of the author.
Tendayi manages to exude a personal emotional energy which in turn manages to effectively reach out to the reader.
The reader is made to feel that the letter is actually addressed to her such that one identifies with the story at one level or another. 
In the book, Dear Cousin, Tendayi comes up with a brilliant masterpiece that highlights her plight as not only a woman and single mother but a public figure as well.
This being her second book after Unlucky in Love, Tendayi this time around decides to be as factual as possible making Dear Cousin the must-have guide to positive living. 
The reality of living with the virus is exposed for what it truly is. Society is therefore co-opted into the whole living positively game. She focuses on the different facets of  the pandemic from the viewpoint of one who is actually living with the virus.
Dear Cousin is a refreshing tackle on the various institutions involved in dealing with the pandemic, the strengths and weaknesses of the various strategies offered.
For instance, the church’s advocacy for the AB message is not as foolproof as it would appear as most girls, having abstained before marriage, find themselves infected in marriage.
The author courageously and convincingly exposes the shortcomings of some legislation which perpetuate the spread of the virus as she notes the Sexual Offences Act which “sustains inequalities among groups”.
Gender issues are also addressed, with the author suggesting that there is need to empower women as far as making accessible the female condoms and abolishing cultural practices like widow inheritance (chiramu) and wife-pledging is concerned. 
She goes a step further in encouraging activists to speak with one voice as there is strength in numbers.  This is noted through the success recorded when the Public Personalities Against Aids Trust in collaboration with parliamentarians undertook HIV and Aids voluntary testing. Public figures are consequently urged to lead by example.
Tendayi’s genre is quite effective as everyone is bound to associate with the book. She leaves no stone unturned making Dear Cousin the book to have.
Tendayi concludes the book with an inspiring testimony of the faith which has carried her through her struggle urging everyone to soldier on for having the virus does not mean the end of the world but the beginning.

l Tendayi is a fashion model, HIV and Aids activist and single mother of four. She holds the 2005 Auxillia Chimusoro Leadership Award  and is the founder of Public Personalities Against Aids Trust.