Carine mum-of-two Rochelle Tetlow forges links with Ukrainian school kids through pen pal program

How did a Carine mum end up crossing the border into war-torn Ukraine at midnight? With no medical nor military background, mother-of-two and former journalist Rochelle Tetlow drove across the border with Poland on July 29. Sitting nervously by her side, as guards carrying semi-automatic weapons checked their passports, was a former Ukrainian Olympian and his schoolteacher wife. “I’m not meant to be in a country being bombed — I’m a mum from Carine,” Tetlow says. Her connection with Ukraine was forged two years earlier, when she organised for children at her sons’ school, Carine Primary, to write letters to students in the war-devastated nation. The first set of letters, photos, friendship bracelets and souvenirs from Perth arrived for students in Rivne — a city in western Ukraine about 800km from the front line — on Christmas Eve in 2022, 10 months after the war broke out. There was a sense of amazement that children from the other side of the world had reached out to them, she said. Videos of subsequent letter drops show their infectious smiles as each name is called to collect packages from the pen pals who have touched their hearts, shared their lives and motivated them to think about a better future, often while isolated in bomb shelters. “The buzz among the Carine students when the replies come back is electrifying,” Mrs Tetlow said. They have compassion for kids living with war, and like their Ukrainian friends, are learning to see beyond the walls of their own world, she said. At the other end of the program is Victoria Kamlochuk, an English teacher in Rivne. The pair were introduced by Victoria’s husband Leonid, a canoeist who Mrs Tetlow, a former journalist, had interviewed at the Sydney Olympics 22 years earlier. Mrs Tetlow created an English language and leadership academy in Rivne, providing free tuition to the sometimes shell-shocked kids. Tetlow set up the charity STELLAR Ukraine, partnering with Global Development Group, a charitable non-government organisation involved in humanitarian projects. “We are looking at a generation of school children who have been robbed of their dreams through war,” she said. “I really wanted to understand how — with so much time spent in air raid bunkers, the rolling blackouts and living deep within the communal grief — how are they supposed to reclaim their education and sense of future?” Mrs Tetlow said to fully understand and advocate for Ukrainian students and she had to experience the country. “If the charity was ever going to work, with incredible mutually beneficial cross-cultural connection I have to understand the Ukraine, and in no way can I do that from the opposite side of the globe,” she said. She initially flew to Poland to meet the Kamlochuks and the trio then made the nerve-wrecking post-curfew trip into Ukraine. “I had to go there, and see for myself what they live through, what their dreams are, what’s achievable, what’s not, how can they best be supported and what do they really need? What do they want? “We need to do this instead of trying to dictate what we think they really need.” . Every town centre flies banners portraying photos of locals killed in action. Her Rivne friends often six hours at a time in air raid bunker, often in school or work groups and without mobile or internet reception Mrs Tetlow said it was incredible what happened when the Ukrainian children hold a piece of paper that has been sent to them from the other side of the world. It offers them a sense of support, the gift of normalcy, and the opportunity to look ahead to a day when they may meet the friends who came to them in their darkest hour. Mrs Tetlow has spent a year carefully developing the program, which includes sponsoring academy students and a pen pal program, which costs Australian families just $10 a month. Her Ukraine connections inspired a private Perth man to donate $22,000, which the Kamlochuks have used to equip Rivne soldiers on the front line. Purchases include blizzard tents, first-aid training, medicines, fast internet access, phone banks and electronic warfare devices to scramble drone signals. There’s a $50 monthly support program for young leaders, with 40 currently going through an Stellar Academy learning English and leadership. Mrs Tetlow says the NGO takes 7.5 per cent of donations to run the charity, with the remainder landing on the ground in the Ukraine. The pen pals, now at Carine Senior High School, meet each Friday after school to create fun English language-learning materials on their lives and make video calls to Ukraine classrooms. “From the earliest days, the principal Damian Shuttleworth saw the potential and mutual benefits in the cross-cultural exchanges and gave us a classroom to chat live with our pen pals’ classes,” Mrs Tetlow said. She said the experience had been profound. “It helps me to not feel helpless and get caught up in anxiety about what is happening in Ukraine,” she said. “The paradox is by helping others you are actually helping yourself. “Instead of watching the war and suffering in Ukraine and thinking I need to turn off the news, because I can’t cope with this and I can’t do anything, you can instead focus on what you can do. “You can focus on the rich and meaningful ways we can uplift these children to stop them from becoming a lost generation.”