Pioneer Women Sponsor Summer Rest Camps for Israeli Children

A massive program to brighten the summer of children from settlements along Israel’s hot borders with Jordan and Lebanon is now being conducted by Pioneer Women through their Israeli affiliate Moetzet Hapoalot, the social service organization. The group has launched a summer program covering the entire northern district of Israel to provide vacations for 5,000 children far from the tension and danger of their border homes. The program will reach three times the number of children as last year’s initial effort, according to Mrs. Jack Zackler, Pioneer Women National President. The camp program is open to all children from border settlements constantly under the threat of enemy attack by their Arab neighbors, but the emphasis is on children of mainly immigrant families, who have no other opportunity to spend a summer vacation away from home. One center of this program is Pioneer Women’s Children’s Convalescent Home, Beit Hachlama in Haifa. It was here that 12 children, aged six to twelve years of age, survivors of the savage ambush of the Moshav Avivim school bus and the shelling of the Beit Shean school, recently completed their rest and recovery before returning to their homes. At the same time, another typical group using this Haifa facility as their camp headquarters, were 26 sixth-grade children, with their teacher, from the often-bombarded town of Kiryat Shmoneh on the Lebanese border.