President Halimah Yacob joined more than 1,000 young people, volunteers from the People's Association and beneficiaries of the President's Challenge to play sports, such as street football, basketball and netball, as well as dance at *Scape yesterday.

The activities were held in support of the President's Challenge Volunteer Drive 2019 - a President's Challenge initiative in which individuals, schools and organisations are encouraged to participate in a host of programmes and volunteer activities.

In support of the President's Challenge, the People's Association has pledged $250,000.

At the event, Madam Halimah took part in a friendly netball game and called for young people to volunteer in support of vulnerable groups in the community.

The President's Challenge has rallied over 6,000 volunteers to support its beneficiaries since the start of the year - more than 80 per cent of whom are young people.

Madam Halimah said: "By leveraging the energy of youth volunteers, President's Challenge hopes to harness the collective efforts of everyone to provide an ecosystem of support to the vulnerable groups in the community. One gap that I hope to address is the availability of community initiatives to support early reading.

"Most of our current reading programmes are designed for children aged four and above. I believe more can be done for younger children, especially those from low-income families.

"Research has shown that early exposure to speech and language through activities such as reading helps lay the foundation for early literacy skills and better prepares our young children for future learning.

"I hope youth volunteers will join me in this effort."

Rahimah Rashith