Dr William Wan, Vice-President Singapore Scout Association

Mr Desmond Chong, Chief Commissioner

Fellow Scouts, Ladies & Gentlemen

A very good morning to all of you. I am happy to join you at the launch of the Diamond Jubilee Challenge today.

The Singapore Scout Association’s mission is to contribute to the education of young people through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, and to help build a better world where people are self- fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society.

In recent years, we have seen significant changes to our society and our way of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to the way we learn. To ensure that our youths are prepared to deal with these changes, the Singapore Scout Association has designed a series of learning journeys and community engagement projects to strengthen the delivery of a non-formal, values-based educational programme.

Known as the Diamond Jubilee Challenge, these learning journeys and community engagement projects will allow our Scouts to learn more about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They will also discover their place in the community and what it means to be a Singaporean. Through this youth-led and adult-supported initiative, our Scouts will take part in thematic activities ranging from “Diversity and Inclusion” where they will explore cultural places to understand Singapore’smulticultural society, to the “Environment” where they will undertake activities to drive climate actions and help fellow Singaporeans understand more about climate change.

The challenge will span over four years and culminate in our nation’s Diamond Jubilee in 2025 where we will celebrate our nation’s 60th birthday with an international Jamboree. COVID-19 has brought some disruptions to the conduct of Scouting activities. While we have pivoted some Scouting activities online, we know they cannot replace the experiences where Scouts come together to interact and build bonds through participation in camps and learning journey.

With the careful planning by the team, the Diamond Jubilee Challenge activities will be curated in a way to fit into the existing Safe Management Measures and provide the Scouts an experience like no other. This includes unique activities such as self-initiated fundraising challenges to promote entrepreneurial spirit among Scouts and environmental exhibitions to promote sustainable practices and climate action. I would like to thank the team for putting in thought to make the challenge as meaningful as possible given the constraints of living with COVID-19.

In the coming months, our Scouts will also be embarking on a fund- raising effort for their Scout Units and future Scouting activities. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to support this fund-raising effort.

The objectives of this multi-year challenge can only be realised if all our Scouts participate actively in the activities. I therefore urge all our Scouts to take part in the planned activities. I would also like to encourage all our parents, schools, and community leaders to support our Scouts in their activities and help make this an impactful experience for our young people.

I wish our Scouts all the best as we embark on this challenge to create a better world.

Thank you.