UK charity launches Family First  movement to build stronger communities

LONDON, Oct 3:  A UK-based charity has launched a new Family First global movement to strengthen intergenerational bonds between children, parents and grandparents, with the aim of building stronger communities across generations.

The Varkey Foundation unveiled the initiative this week with the first-ever 'Family First Global Survey', which revealed that Indian families place exceptionally high value on spending time together across generations. The analysis found that 85 per cent of Indian Gen Z say spending time with their family is very important – the highest percentage of all 15 countries surveyed.

"This landmark report clearly shows that family bonds are under strain. Economic pressures, conflict, geographical distance and technological change all make it harder for families to spend meaningful time together," said Sunny Varkey, founder of Family First and the Varkey Foundation.

"Across many societies, this is contributing to weaker intergenerational relationships, greater loneliness among older people and less time shared between children, parents and grandparents. Â

"Yet the family remains the most fundamental building block of every community, making it more important than ever to understand, protect and strengthen these relationships," he said.

The new survey also features the world's first 'Family Bonding Index', which assigns countries a score based on the strength of family connections.

In India, the strong emphasis on family connection is found to extend across generations, as 76 per cent of children say they would like to spend more time with their grandparents – the highest percentage globally. While 85 per cent of parents say they spend time with their own parents at least once a week, 65 per cent say they do so every day – both the highest percentages of all countries surveyed. Â

However, despite this strong commitment to family life, only 22 per cent of Indian children say they are satisfied with the amount of quality family time they have – the lowest percentage of all countries surveyed.

Family First commissioned research agency We Are Family to interview over 6,000 parents, their children aged nine to 18, 3,000 grandparents of children aged nine to 18, and 3,000 Gen Z participants in January and February 2026. The countries included in the research were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, India, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Sweden, UAE, UK and US. (PTI)