I would be the one to blame for giving her false hope.

Please don’t feel this way! No matter how it turns out, the hope you gave was not false. Hope aids the journey, no matter the destination.

She has told me to keep on reminding her that 'things are going to get better’.

From this, I gather that what you are doing is helping her! It’s hard feeling that your words aren’t changing her situation - you can’t change how her teammates act - but what you are doing is showing you care and giving her support, and that is very valuable and can be hard to quantify.

With that said, here are some ideas that have helped me, hopefully you can see if there is something that can be applied to your situation:

• Is there anything that she is enjoying about being at the program? Perhaps try and focus on that. For instance, is the study/work interesting? Maybe ask her about what new things she’s learning. Or has she gotten a chance to explore the city on her free time? Maybe encourage her to go out into the city and then she can also share her experience with you (pictures, what yummy food she ate, etc).

• You don’t have Skype, what do you have access to? Text? My SO texts me at lunch a short message to check on my morning and wish good luck for the afternoon. That consistency helps me get through. It’s kind of like getting a sticky note message in your lunch kit!

• Is she able to receive cards? Cards/letters are not too pricey to send and they are a lot of fun to receive. That may help give her a pick me up.

• Lists can be sooo satisfying! Ex. does she have a calendar? It can be very cathartic crossing out each day when it’s over, writing down a good thing that happen that day, seeing the new cute picture at the start of each month. Are there milestones in her program (ex. is it divided into semesters?) - you guys can do something special at the end of each milestone.