Mzansi Edge “ECD Talks” (talk 4) with Pam Picken

During lockdown, young children from vulnerable households have largely been stuck at home relying on their parents to “keep them busy” as Kingsley has highlighted along the journey. This is primarily due to the fact that their ECD Centres (preschools) have still not opened as they have a host of unreasonable requirements they have to meet before welcoming young children back to the classroom.

Today we are speaking with the DO MORE FOUNDATION ECD consultant – Pam Picken around the topic of “parents as the child’s first teacher”.

Mrs Pam Picken, Do More Foundation Early Years Specialist, holds a B.A. Degree, a Graduate Certificate in Education and an H.E.D Post-Graduate Pre-Primary (with distinction).

She has worked passionately in the field of early childhood development (ECD) for more than 40 years – as a teacher; in Corporate Social Investment for Rainbow Chicken Farms; as the Director of one of the oldest and largest of the ECD Resource and Training Organisations involved in a wide range of programmes to improve opportunities for vulnerable young children and their families in marginalised communities; in policy and programme development, research and advocacy.

In 1995 Pam was the recipient of the Sanlam/Sunday Tribune ‘Bridge Builder Award’ from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and was nominated for the Shoprite/Checkers ‘Woman of the Year’ Award in 2005.

Since 2012, Pam has been involved in broader early childhood initiatives to take forward a vision of ensuring young children in South Africa get the best possible start in life to enable them to reach their potential and so ensure that South Africa develops its human resource potential to become a winning nation.

Pam’s work has been predominantly in supporting the Do More Foundation to drive forward their vision to ‘Create Better Tomorrows for South Africa’s Young Children’ through mobilising collaborative private/public partnerships and resources for greater impact and more sustainable change for young children, families and communities.