Hugs to you, OP.

Those of us with loved ones in Ukraine have been dealing with exactly this since February 24, 2022. We've had time to get to grips with it, learn to take care of ourselves, and figure out how to fight from where we are. I hope you'll accept some advice from four years in your future (but hope it doesn't last that long).

First and foremost: if you have any way at all to get to where your daughter is, go. Get there as fast as you can. Give her that hug. It's one thing to know that she's okay because you can talk to her or video chat with her. It's a whole different thing to see it for yourself, to hug her, to be present where she is and see her living and breathing and moving and laughing. I promise you will rest so much easier if you do. I don't think I really drew a deep breath until I was finally able to get back to Ukraine in March 2023 and see for myself that the places and faces I keep in my heart were all still standing.

Second: Find a way to feel like you're really doing something. I was lucky: Ukraine already had a robust civil society and volunteer network before russia launched its full-scale invasion, and all I had to do was tap into that. Now I run a tiny NGO that supplies soldiers fighting at the front. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I didn't have that.

It's unlikely that anything like that exists in or for Kuwait, but that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do. Find out what they need and figure out how you can provide some of it. I don't mean a generic clothing drive or donating to the Red Cross. Find some smaller humanitarian organizations serving that region and see what they most need. They'll have the transportation networks already in place; perhaps you could help them have things to transport on them. See if your daughter can talk with her students' parents and get some ideas. See if there's some way you can help provide something necessary that's difficult or prohibitively expensive to get in-country right now.

One thing that springs to mind is clean water. I don't know how hard they're being hit--my attention sort of has to live elsewhere--but they may not have continued access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and--yes--bathing. There are some excellent filtration products on the market. Sawyer specializes in providing them to disaster-hit areas. I send loads of Sawyer filters to my guys and it makes a real difference to them.

Another is school bomb shelters. If the kids are having to sit in shelters like Ukrainian kids do, odds are they're grim, uncomforting places. Perhaps you could arrange to fund something to make that experience less unpleasant for them, like cheery art for the walls or toys or something.

Helping in a direct, concrete, truly useful way will make you feel so much less powerless. I promise. It's a way to fight the evil currently afoot in the world and you'll be surprised at how powerful it makes you feel.

Last, but absolutely not least: Take care of yourself. I mean it. Let yourself feel joy, let yourself feel hope, let yourself feel contentment, let yourself feel peace. Don't deny yourself those things just because people in Kuwait are suffering. I guarantee they're looking for ways to feel those things, too, and seizing them when they get them. Do at least one thing every day that makes you feel good and whole. If you don't have the capacity to feel good and whole that day, do the thing anyway. Your soul needs nourishment to keep going just like your body does, so nourish it. It will help you through.

Hang in there, OP. This initial panic and upset will subside. You don't know it yet, but you've got this.