"Family is the core fabric of a healthy society," says Felicia Buthelezi, the founder and editor of I DO magazine.
|||"Family is the core fabric of a healthy society," says Felicia Buthelezi the founder and editor of I DO magazine, which aims to save marriages.
Felicia is a strong believer in marriage and feels that great leaders are groomed in families.
She believes that family values are essential in feeding into the stability and growth of our society.
She said that a family starts with a marriage of two people who are in love and are ready to make a life together; they create an environment that is conducive to raising children, a place that gives a child identity and security.
"A stable marriage builds a stable home, a stable home builds stable communities and stable communities build stable nations," she added.
"Families should be the priority. My family comes first no matter what and there is nothing worth losing my family," she says.
Buthelezi is proud to have experienced each and every milestone for her children, and she is proud of being a wife.
She was inspired to start the magazine when she realised that there is nothing in the market that deals solely about marriage and we have a lots of magazines that celebrate a one-day ceremony, which is the wedding day, she says
"It didn't make any sense to me that shelves are packed with wedding magazines but nothing on marriage".
Buthelezi decided to take a risk and create a lifestyle brand that will speak to modern couples.
She said it wasn't easy when she started her business in her hometown of Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal at the age of 22.
She was one of the few business women in her area. It was difficult for most people to take her seriously because of the colour of her skin and her age, she says.
"The most painful experience is the one you get from black women, there is still a long way to go to free our women from the painful pasts of being oppressed. Some of my staff couldn't accept being employed by a black woman".
She then came up with the name I DO because she wanted something catchy.
"We say 'I do' when we say our vows without realising the significance of those words.
"I also realised the significance of these words 'I do', words that carry so much power to change your life forever," she says .
Buthelezi said that marriage requires work, maturity, and service.
"Most couples like the idea of marriage but not the work. Anything that is not nourished dies, so does marriage. However, if you are both ready to build a home and to serve each other, it is highly possible for marriage to work.
"It is women’s month and we need to discuss things that really matter and one of those things should be the current state of our families," she concluded.
IOL