We recently funded Caritas for a study, conducted by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, reveals critical insights into the mental health of local children. Surveying over 5,200 Primary 4–6 students under the “Family+” project, the research highlights the mounting pressures children face today:
The “Soft Pressure” Trap: 66% of students feel overwhelmed by exams, heavily tying their self-worth to grades. Even well-meaning encouragement like “do your best” can inadvertently project parental anxiety onto kids.
Silent Refuge: Nearly 60% struggle with uncertainty about the future. Many children lower their expectations or retreat into silence to hide their stress.
Family as the Ultimate Buffer: A harmonious, emotionally secure home remains the strongest protective shield for a child’s mental resilience.
These findings reinforce our Foundation’s commitment to fostering unconditional parental acceptance and strengthening family bonds as the foundation for children’s emotional health.
We are thrilled to share the successful results of the youth-led “TRY Gym” project! Our two-year collaboration with Tung Wah College and Hong Kong Shue Yan University proved highly impactful, empowering 295 trainees to reach over 7,600 peers. Participants showed significant psychological improvements, showcasing the power of home-school-community collaboration in youth wellness.
Baseball connects generations. Co-funded with the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation, we proudly supported Eldpathy’s 4th Hong Kong Intergenerational Baseball Competition, uniting 100+ players across a 60-year age gap. This event showcased how students improve focus, resilience, and academic performance by training alongside seniors.
To enhance intergenerational relationships between grandparents and family members, Lee Kum Kee Family Foundation advocates marking the second Sunday in October every year as “Grandparents’ Day”, manifesting the motto of “Appreciation Starts at Home”. Grandparents’ Day 2025 Funfair, the flagship event to celebrate Grandparents’ Day this year, was successfully held on 12 October at D．PARK. Through game booths, workshops, performances by grandparents and grandchildren, over a thousand grandparent-grandchildren families enjoyed a great opportunity to enhance intergenerational bonds through discovering Five Love Languages via play, fostering mutual respect and appreciation. Ms Alice Mak, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, and Mr. Jason Lee, Chairperson of Lee Kum Kee Family Foundation joined hands as guests of honour to kickoff the event, while Mr. Jason Lee presented a heartfelt gift for his grandmother Mrs. Lee Man Tat. A prize presentation ceremony and winner’s exhibition of “Loving Family – Thank You Grandparents 2025” Drawing Competition were also held.
To manifest the motto of “Appreciation Starts at Home” and promote communication between grandparents and their family members through five love languages, we have invited renowned actress Jennifer Yu and renowned actor Kaki Sham to share about their experiences on heartfelt intergenerational interactions and offer insights on parenting, supporting the advocacy of marking the second Sunday of October every year as “Grandparents’ Day”.
To highlight the mental health challenges faced by DSE students, our Secret Chat project conducted a survey in early 2025, revealing that 40% of Secondary 5 and 6 students show symptoms of depression or anxiety. Potential contributing factors include increased competitiveness, heightened attachment, and reduced hope. The results reinforced our efforts to end the stigma surrounding help-seeking when DSE students face mental challenges.
We sponsored Mental Health Foundation to launch the first ever “Tranquility Path”, designed in collaboration with WWF-Hong Kong. The path combined mindfulness and gratitude practices with the serene natural environment of the Mai Po Nature Reserve, helping participants reconnect with themselves through the healing power of nature, fostering mental well-being among the community.
As a part of our Hong Kong Intergenerational Growth Partners Project co-funded with Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation, the 3rd Hong Kong Intergenerational Baseball League kicked off on April 6th 2025 as the program finale, showcasing unique intergenerational camaraderie and sportsmanship stemmed between pairs of senior and student players in the program.
The “Appreciating Grandparents: Family Relationships and Love” Survey that we collaborated with Wofoo Social Enterprises showed that the duration of time spent together does not directly impact grandparents’ satisfaction level toward their relationships with grandchildren. Grandparents most desired “Quality Time” with their family members over quantity of time.
This survey is one of the kick-off events for our “Grandparents’ Day 2024/25” campaign. By understanding grandparents’ preferred ways of appreciation through this survey, we aim to encourage the public to express gratitude to grandparents for their unconditional contributions to family.
In our project partnership with the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, a survey on the effects of “Five Love Languages” towards “Parent-Child Communication, Parent-Child Relationship and Family Harmony” has been conducted from November 2023 to February 2024 and had interviewed 504 members of the BGCA through questionnaires. The survey reveals that parents and children who frequently use the language of love while reducing the use of violent language, helps reduce parent-child conflicts, and improve parent-child relationship and family harmony.
Together with Wofoo Social Enterprises “HK. WeCare”, we entrusted Tung Wah College school of nursing to conduct the first family happiness survey after society had “returned to normal” from various epidemic policy measures. The finding shows that the Family Happiness Index dropped to a record low of 6.57 in the last three years despite society’s “returning to normal”.
The conference was successfully held at Hong Kong Baptist University on 23 February 2023. We not only invited the project officer to share the frontline experiences and reflections, but also had a participant to share her learning on the difference in the relationship between her grandson and herself after joining the project.
It also attracted 50 social workers/ students to join and provided many inspiring insights and comments to the project research team.
The conference was successfully held at Hong Kong Baptist We are pleased to attend the “Youth in Trans-Generational Families Knowledge Exchange Platform” organized by Asian Academy of Family Therapy on 19 November. It attracted over 190 professionals from different fields. Dr. Lee Wai Yung shared a few real cases which illustrated how family relationship shapes the personality development of youth and children and how emotional and behavioral patterns are transmitted from one generation to another.
We were glad to join this forum with the topic: Social prescribing – Rebuilding Community Links held by Wofoo Social Enterprises on 18 November. It was a fruitful journey to learn from different guest speakers on how to reconnect the relationship between the community and youths in Hong Kong to prevent the next pandemic.
It was our pleasure to join and share in the Family Impact Symposium held by SVhk on July 13th. It was a great opportunity for us to exchange and brainstorm innovative ideas on how to establish a better Hong Kong in the philanthropic industry with different government body, family foundations and businesses.
Together with A Plastic Ocean Foundation, we invited 54 fellows and 60 grassroots families to join this event at Cube O Discovery Bay. This graduation carnival was to recognize some fellows who had participated in this project for a year and created some quality time for family members during the pandemic.
This flagship event was held successfully on May 26 and attracted 119 social workers, 86 participants from education industry and 9 participants from other family foundation.
Together with Family Council of HKSAR governement, we support Consortium of Institutes on Family in the Asian Region (CIFA) for the “Family We-time at home challenge”. It is aimed to promote and create more family we-time at home through family photography, coloring and drawing competitions, in commemoration of the International Day of Families on May 15th.
Family Happiness Index 2022’s score dropped from 7.26 in 2021 to 6.98 this year due to the financial difficulties and mental pressure caused by the 5th wave pandemic. The associate vice president of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, professor Daniel T.L. Shek pointed out that one in five households in Hong Kong is unhappy. He also mentioned that the “Five love languages” approach is an effective way to enhance the Family Happiness Index, such as praising or giving a hug to the family members etc. Besides “Five love languages”, professor Daniel Shek also encourages people to share their difficulties with family members and to overcome the challenges together.
A survey report on the stress of fathers and its causes in Hong Kong by the JCI City and the Foundation was released near Father’s day on June 19, 2021. It found that 35% of local fathers were highly emotional and 10% of the interviewees needed professional intervention.
Together with HK.WeCare of Wofoo Social Enterprise and School of Nursing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, we currently conducted a survey about family happiness index in April 2021. This is the third year we have done the same study in Hong Kong and the score is higher than the previous two-year.
Do you want to learn more about how family foundation promotes the importance of family harmony while facing challenges of a pandemic?
As a father/husband, it is hard to avoid dealing with some family issues such as in-laws relationships and behavior management for children. Correct handling methods helps father/husband to create happy family relationships.
In Collaboration with Vessel, family can enjoy a Urban Farm Shiso & Almond Sone Workshop, including the knowledge of farming and cooking with fresh ingredients.
Symposium on Family Wellbeing in a Changing Society sponsored by Lee Kum Kee Family Foundation was held at Hong Kong Conventional and Exhibition Centre on May 17th, 2019. This one day symposium features keynote speeches and empirical studies by 31 local and international speakers. Attended by more than 600 participants, provided not only a platform to explore family wellbeing in local and global context, but also an opportunity to share experience and collaborations.
Nurturing the resilience of the next generation requires strengthening the multi-generational family dynamics surrounding them, moving from a child-only focus to a holistic family support network.
The Research Foundation:
Our youth strategies are grounded in evidence-based research by Hong Kong Shue Yan University regarding child-focused in-law relationship enhancement in multi-generational families. The study demonstrates that a child’s psychological and emotional wellbeing is highly related to their interaction with family members, particularly parents and grandparents.
It is crucial for children to learn positive family values at a young age.
Since 2016, the Foundation has established an annual family value theme, directly responding to the core pillars proposed by the Hong Kong Family Council: “Love and Care”, “Responsibility and Respect”, and “Communication and Harmony”.
To translate these values into daily action, the Foundation integrates Dr. Gary Chapman’s “Five Love Languages” framework (Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch). LKKFF specifically champions the promotion of Quality Time and Words of Affirmation to encourage family members to express love through action:
Quality Time (Active Togetherness):
Concentration: Giving undivided attention to family members during interactions and conversations.
Get Together: Enjoying precious moments by bringing the family together to engage in activities of mutual interest.
Quality Dialogue: Paying close attention to body language and emotional expressions when listening to family members.
Be Expressive: Creating a safe environment that allows family members to confidently express their personal thoughts, feelings, and expectations.
Words of Affirmation (Positive Reinforcement):
Appreciation: Expressing clear gratitude to family members when they do something for the household.
Encouragement: Developing empathy by understanding the needs of family members from their perspectives, and offering vocal support whenever necessary.
Kindness: Learning to express deep care, empathy, and condolences within the household.
Humility: Communicating needs and requests with a humble, polite, and respectful attitude rather than demands.
Our framework recognizes that a family’s health depends on its capacity to perform essential functions, satisfy the diverse needs of its members, and interact constructively with its environment.
The Research Foundation:
Our approach adapts the conceptual framework of the Hong Kong Family Wellbeing Index (HKFWI) study conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. To systematically elevate family wellbeing, the Foundation prioritizes initiatives that focus on improving the following six key domains derived from the index:
Family Solidarity: Enhancing mutual trust, appreciation, and emotional support, while fostering family harmony and quality time to build long-term resilience among members.
Family Resources: Fostering the growth of psychological capital, essential life skills, and safe home environments.
Family Health: Safeguarding and tracking both the physical and mental health conditions of the family unit.
Social Connection: Encouraging social involvement and empowering the family to contribute positively to the broader community.
Social Resources: Improving the accessibility of both informal support networks and formal institutional help.
Work-Life Balance: Creating strategies that mitigate the friction where work interferes with home life or home interferes with work.
(Note to Applicants: Funded projects are not required to apply all six domains simultaneously but must explicitly target and measure impact in at least one specific domain, and we would prioritize projects addressing the domains of the overlapping areas).
For further details of each domain, please browse at https://www.hkfws.org.hk/hkfwi/hkfwi-report (pp 41-43)
