Westmeath Women: Orla Cahill, Founder of ‘Kind Kids Club’
Regan Kelly
In a world where information is at our fingertips, it has become increasingly important for us to take a break from scrolling and focus on calming our minds. Arguably, this is even more important for children and teenagers, as the world can seem daunting for them at that age.
One person who is passionate about this is Ballynacargy woman, Orla Cahill. She is an accredited creative mindfulness kids practitioner, and her club aims to provide children with the tools to have positive mental health and wellbeing.
They do that through learning how to calm and relax their minds, by trying to understand and express their thoughts and feelings, while also being kind to themselves and others.
The children take part in activities like arts and crafts, storytelling, bubble therapy, games and creativity. Orla worked in Whelehans Pharmacy in Mullingar for 10 years before founding ‘Kind Kids Club’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was able to get started when the owner of Whelehans, Eamonn Brady, gave her use of space at his premises.
Orla said: “Eamonn was very good to me, he gave me a room and allowed me to get the ball rolling with just six kids in there doing our mindfulness.”
Since then, ‘Kind Kids Club’ has grown and Orla now provides workshops throughout Westmeath, in primary schools, special education schools. She has her base at Ballynacargy GAA Clubhouse.
Orla said: “I always loved children, and people often ask me how I work with children – I just love them.
“I wanted to work with children, and I tried some of these approaches with my son, and it helped so much, so I thought, all kids need to know this.”
Over the years, Orla has seen the benefits of her work first-hand: “There’s this one girl, when I first started, and her mam sent her to me. She was so shy, so withdrawn, she ended up loving it and carried on for about six or seven classes and workshops.
“This year I found out she was up on stage performing at Mullingar Arts Centre. It’s amazing when you see the difference in the children.”
Orla believes that teaching children the basics of mindfulness and self-care is what they need. “It’s all well and good to go to different therapies, but you need to know the basics. Even as adults, we might think we are anxious, but really, we might just be a little worried about something.
“You know, you’re sad! It’s okay, that feeling will go, and we can learn to hug ourselves from time to time.”
The aim for Orla and ‘Kind Kids Club’ is to continue to grow and provide more workshops for children in Westmeath, and she is thankful for all those who have helped her along the way.
“I couldn’t do this without Celine Maguire, Ballynacargy GAA for the use of their clubhouse, and Siobhán Moore.”
Orla is running camps at her Ballynacargy base on August 5 and 6, from 11am to 2pm on both days.
For more information on ‘Kind Kids Club’, see Facebook (facebook.com/kidspositivementalhealth/about).