More than 60 campers, pre-school boys and girls from poor families, and eight teenage girls from poor families in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, are participating in the first free “backyard” neigh-borhood day camp under Jewish auspices, according to Torah Umesorah, National Society of Hebrew Day Schools, sponsor of the camp program. The camp, run by Neshei Ahava Chesed, a charitable women’s organization in Boro Park, is held in the back yards of neighborhood residents. It offers the mostly Orthodox campers a free program of swimming, ball playing, arts and crafts, outings and other recreational activities while training counselors, who are actual or potential high school dropouts, in leadership skills.
Counselors, aged 14-18, are paid $1.60 per hour for 27 hours of work as part of Torah Umesorah’s ongoing summer program, in cooperation with the Neighborhood Youth Corps, for 413 Jewish youths from poor families who cannot afford to leave the city. The Neighborhood Youth Corps program is funded by the Department of Labor through the Youth Services Agency of the City of New York. Torah Umesorah administers the funds, providing $500 for the camp’s recreational equipment.
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