Whether your child is a newborn or an adolescent, it's fun decorating your kid's room. If you have a knack for interior design, perhaps you go above and beyond, mix and match, and style your child's room to perfection. Or, maybe you're the type of person who likes to go to a furniture store and buy every piece in a specific collection.
Regardless of the type of decorator that you resonate with the most, finding kid-friendly home decor can be really fun, especially if you still maintain some of your childhood charms and would love to show them by outfitting your kid's room with fun, playful themes. For example, maybe when you were a child, you loved animals and had a few small or life-size stuffed bears and giraffes hanging around your bed.
These decorations are common staples in children's rooms and ones that you'll likely include in your kid's bedroom. But instead of searching far and wide for these products, Khutsala Artisans offers a variety of fun kid-friendly home decor that your little ones will love.
What's even better is that these products have a lot of meaning attached to them. Every piece of handmade home decor for kids helps represent the orphaned and vulnerable children in Eswatini, Africa, that Khutsala Artisans and Heart for Africa are working together to save and love.
Why are there so many orphans in Eswatini?
While most people don't know it, Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the largest populations of orphans, with 20 percent of people under 18-years-old living without parents. In Eswatini, specifically, many children are already orphans or vulnerable to becoming one.
Currently, research suggests that there are over 200,000 kids in Eswatini that are growing up without their parents. And without people to care for them, these children have no way to provide for or protect themselves, especially when they're babies.
In Eswatini, there are countless stories about newborns who are left by the river, abandoned in bags, found crawling on the side of the road, or wasting away in a slum with no food—and several reasons contribute to this issue.
One of the primary factors is the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which in 2019 affected over 200,000 Swazis. Despite the country only having 1.1 million citizens, its small population has the highest HIV prevalence in the world. Additionally, the virus is most prevalent in adults between the ages of 15 and 49, with 27 percent of them having HIV/AIDS.
The worst part about this virus is that many adult Swazis die from it. In 2019, there were 2,300 AIDS-related deaths reported in Eswatini. Research also suggests that around 45,000 children from 0 to 17 years old have become orphans because of AIDS-related illnesses.
These statistics are discouraging, to say the least. But in recent years, HIV testing has rapidly increased to help save Swazi lives. Still, despite these efforts, the orphan crisis in Eswatini has persisted because of another major contributing factor: poverty.
Unfortunately, today, most Swazis face poverty and joblessness. In fact, 40 percent of the population in Eswatini lives on less than US$1.25 per day, but this issue affects the country's rural population the most. Because of low agricultural productivity, droughts, and unfavorable weather conditions, many Swazis live without any financial resources.
As a result, it's hard for them to access clean water, sanitation facilities, and decent housing. Moreover, these Swazis typically struggle to buy food for themselves, let alone their children. Oftentimes, the situation becomes so bad that it makes parents abandon their kids because they can't take care of them and don't want to watch them suffer.
Buy kid-friendly home decor to help children in Eswatini
If you want to help the orphaned and vulnerable children in Eswatini, you have an opportunity to shop with purpose at Khutsala Artisans by purchasing kid-friendly home decor for your little ones. All of the profits that Khutsala Artisans makes goes to Heart for Africa, a faith-based humanitarian organization that cares for and loves Swazi children who have been orphaned or abandoned.
This means that when you come alongside Khutsala Artisans, you not only get to purchase items that make your kids happy, but you also get to buy beautiful products that remind you and your children of the littles ones that you're helping in Eswatini. If that sounds exciting to you, here are five pieces of kid-friendly home decor from Khutsala Artisans' kid's collection that you should shop.
Evoke your children's imagination by buying this beautiful Beaded Unicorn. With over thousands of beads, this handmade piece blends red, orange, blue, and white to create a mesmerizing and fun unicorn. This product is especially great if your kids already love unicorns or have a taste for fantastical stories about faraway lands.
Buy the Beaded Unicorn HERE.
Give your children a taste of Africa by shopping the Beaded Lions. These elegant handmade pieces include over 4,000 beads and take three African artisans and many hours to make. Additionally, lions usually symbolize strength, courage, and wisdom, so this is an excellent item if your children already display these attributes or aspire to be like Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia.
Buy the Beaded Lions HERE.
Maybe your children love movies and stories with dragons. If so, you should check out Khutsala Artisans' Beaded Dragons. These handcrafted products also require thousands of beads and three African artisans to work together to make them. But the end result is four fun dragons with their own names: Fireball, Gus, Dewey, and Piper.
Buy the Beaded Dragons HERE.
If your children love the snow, the Beaded Penguin may be the perfect piece to put on their windowsill. Coming in two sizes—small and large—these handmade products combine thousands of beads to create a fun, realistic depiction of penguins. The larger size is a momma penguin, and the smaller size is a baby penguin, so this piece will be great if you want kid-friendly home decor that shows your love for your kids.
Buy the Beaded Penguin HERE.
Most kids love dinosaurs, and if your children find these animals particularly interesting, shop the Beaded Dinosaurs from Khutsala Artisans. Handcrafted with care and detail, the Beaded Dinosaurs come in three styles—a brontosaurus, velociraptor, and T-rex— in case your kids like variety.
Shop the Beaded Dinosaurs HERE.
Infuse purpose into your interior design
With Khutsala Artisans, you can shop with purpose and buy home decor that's not only beautiful but meaningful. Each item is a great conversation piece that can spark awareness around the children in Eswatini that you and your little ones are helping.
So don't just buy kid-friendly home decor that's cute and fun—purchase items that are cute, fun, and full of purpose. The meaning behind the home decor may even inspire your children to continue to develop a spirit of giving.
For more decor ideas, shop the entire Kid's Collection HERE.
In February, most people only celebrate Valentine's Day, and it makes sense. It's the most popular and well-known holiday of the month. But there's another special day that also exists: Random Acts of Kindness Day.
