Books of Hope is a service-learning program where U.S. schools select a sister school in Uganda and create instructional books, collect donated school supplies, and raise funds to help meet the students' educational needs. It's an ideal way to incorporate service learning into your curriculum while also helping you meet your academic standards. What better way for your students to learn a subject than to teach about it through writing a book?

Schools, organizations, and individuals can participate in Books of Hope by registering for the program and selecting a sister school or organization that serves vulnerable children in Uganda. Based on their sister school's needs, students write, illustrate and bind books that will then be delivered to their sister school. They also have the option of collecting financial donations or donated books and supplies to send to their sister school. In exchange, teachers will receive instructional resources to help them facilitate the project and all schools will receive feedback from their sister school before the end of the school year.

Books of Hope allows teachers to seamlessly incorporate service into practically any unit of any classroom at any level. Whether you teach reading or science, math or social studies, Books of Hope is a great fit. Since the children at your sister school study many of the same subject areas that American students do, books with specific, accurate educational content can help provide instructional materials for their classrooms.

Over 50,000 students, teachers, parents and community members from over 1500 schools across the country have been involved in Books of Hope. During the 2008-9 school year, we collected over 14,000 pounds of books and donated supplies.

1. To enhance literacy and learning abroad by creating educational materials for vulnerable children in countries where English proficiency is desirable and/or necessary for success.



2. To support literacy in U.S. schools by motivating students to read and write for an audience of their peers who will value their work.



3. To foster empathy and social responsibility in American students by providing an effective way for them to learn about and make a difference in the lives of children facing war, poverty, disease, and slavery around the world.

Yes, you can download and print a 2-page informational handout along with various other materials in our Introductory Materials section.

Anyone can participate as long as they are able to pay the participation fee and can designate one contact person who checks email regularly. The majority of our participants are schools, but we also have student organizations, after school programs, neighborhood centers, home school students, church youth groups and Sunday school classes, university residence halls, special education classes, and a variety of other kinds of organizations involved in the program. Our participants range from first grade to university level students.

We have requests for tens of thousands of books in every subject area. In fact, we are greatly in need of math and science books, along with books in social studies, health science, physical education, music, English language literacy, and art. Books of Hope allows you to integrate literacy into your curriculum, regardless of the subject you teach. You can see all the possible book topics here.

What better way for your students to learn about a topic than to write about it? Rather than writing an essay or solving problem sets, consider having your students write a short book for an eager audience! Your books can include puzzles, quizzes, simple science experiments, math problems (and answers!), glossaries, diagrams, activities, etc.

The participation fee is based on the number of boxes you'd like to send. We ask all participants to use the United States Postal Service "ReadyPost 15 x 12 x 10-inch Mailing Carton"

These boxes are available at your local US Post Office and cost $3.19 per box. This cost is not included in your registration fee.

You can fit as much as possible into these boxes, as box weight is not a factor in your fee. In fact, for the sake of stability, we encourage you to pack them to the very, very top.


Also, please be aware that domestic shipping expenses to our warehouse in the United States is not included in your participation fee.

The participation fee for the 2009-2010 school year is:

• $125 to send 1 box
  This is generally best for small groups or a single classroom



• $225 for 2-3 boxes
  This is generally best for 2-4 classrooms



• $50 for each additional box
  For example, $275 for 4 boxes, $325 for 5 boxes, etc.

The boxes can include any combination of student-made books, donated books, and donated supplies

There is no weight limit on any of the boxes, and we encourage you to fill them to the very, very top for the sake of stability during shipping.

Your participation fee includes:

• International freight forwarding and customs clearance from our warehouse in the United States. This includes preparing the shipment and the documents and inventory that are required.



• Direct delivery to your sister school (many of our schools are so remote that they have no way of retrieving shipments from their P.O. Box in Gulu).



• Facilitating your sister school relationship



• Books of Hope instructional & support materials, both online and mailed to you



• Photograph of one of your books at your sister school



• Dozens of photographs and a written update about your sister school after our annual delivery trip



• Books of Hope has contracted with Dorothy Anena Otika of the Latigi Orphan Care Center to help with on-the-ground work during the times when our staff aren't there. As part of that contract, we pay Dorothy a monthly stipend which not only covers her work for us, but also a significant portion of her expenses related to her other projects on behalf of local children who have been orphaned by the war or HIV. In other words, we're supporting the work of a highly respected organization in Gulu and making sure that they can do their work even more effectively.



• Oversight and accountability of how your donations are being used. We have developed extensive and ongoing relationships with almost 20 schools, their staff and administration, and a dozen government officials that serve Acholi children. These relationships make this project possible. Dorothy helps us monitor the status of the donations to your sister schools, to make sure they are being used for their intended purposes. Books of Hope staff also spend a significant portion of each year's delivery trip conducting evaluation and assessment in order to make the project more effective.

Your participation fee does NOT include:

• Cost of purchasing the United States Postal Service "ReadyPost 15 x 12 x 10-inch Mailing Carton". At the moment this is $3.19 per box.



• Domestic shipping to our United States warehouse. This address will be made available to registered schools, and you are welcome to use whichever parcel service gives you the best rate (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc).
  
  Just to give you an estimate, if you are sending a 35 pound box of books and supplies, you could use the USPS Parcel Post rate which is $24.08 per box. If you were only sending books, you could use the USPS Media Mail classification, and this would cost $15.64 for a 35 pound box. These costs will vary with the weight of your box.



• Supplies and costs related to constructing, assembling, printing, and copying (when relevant), etc. your books

Much of the expense of Books of Hope depends on the type of book-making materials you use and the way you decide to print and bind your books. This will vary greatly by school.

In terms of your participation fee, packaging and domestic shipping costs to our warehouse, here is a cost breakdown that might be useful in your planning:

Approx.* Cost Breakdown of Shipping with Books of Hope:

Number of Boxes	Participation Fee	Cost for domestic shipping to U.S. warehouse ($24.08 per 35 lb box at the USPS parcel post rate*)	Cost for United States Postal Service "ReadyPost 15 x 12 x 10-inch Mailing Carton" at $3.19 per box	Total Cost
1	$125	$24.08	$3.19	$152.27
2	$225	$48.16	$6.38	$279.54
3	$225	$72.24	$9.57	$306.81
4	$275	$96.32	$12.76	$384.08
5	$325	$120.4	$15.95	$461.35

*Media Mail costs only $15.64 per 35-pound box if you've only packed books in that box, thus making domestic shipping less expensive. The domestic shipping cost will also vary with the weight of your boxes.

As you'll see below, we offer you a discount on international shipping and provide a variety of services, such as feedback, photographs, and updates that you could not guarantee if you were to ship independently.

• The cost for shipping through Books of Hope shown in the table below includes our participation fee, domestic shipping expenses and the cost of the box. Your domestic shipping costs to us would be even lower if you were shipping only books through Media Mail or if your box was lighter than 35 pounds



• The cost for the other parcel services includes $50 as a minimum additional cost you'd pay in postal taxes and to have your books delivered to your school from the P.O. Box in Gulu.

These prices reflect international shipping to Gulu, Uganda for 35-pound 15 x 12 x 10-inch boxes.

	1 Box	2 Boxes	3 Boxes	4 Boxes	5 Boxes
Books of Hope	$152.27	$279.54	$306.81	$384.08	$461.35
USPS - Flat Rate Int'l Priority Mail	$157.90	$265.80	$373.70	$481.60	$589.50
USPS - Airmail M-Bag	$198.75	$347.50	$496.25	$645.00	$793.75
USPS - Int'l Priority Mail	$239.50	$429.00	$618.50	$808.00	$997.50
UPS	$825.00	$1323.74
FedEx Int'l Economy	$661.10	$1272.20
DHL World- wide Express	$746.50	$1443.50

Please bear in mind that shipping independently does NOT guarantee any feedback or photos from your sponsored school or even confirmation of receipt.

The reality is that Uganda is an extremely poor country with very little dependable infrastructure, either for communication or transportation. Uganda also has an immensly corrupt bureaucracy, and, if you were to ship independently, your package could very well "disappear" before reaching its destination.

With all of that in mind, we hope you'll agree that Books of Hope is a great deal for you!

To learn more about how we calculated these expenses, visit our cost comparison page.

After you register on our website, your school's contact person will receive an invoice via email. We ask that payment be submitted within one month after you receive the invoice. We accept checks (made out to "Books of Hope") or cash.

Yes, after you register, your school's representative will receive an email invoice.

Your school's contact person will receive a confirmation and a receipt via email.

While fundraising sounds like an extra task to complete, it actually can become an important part of the service-learning experience. Three reasons to fundraise (even if your principal is willing to pay the fee):

1. It extends the act of service to more than making books



2. It teaches students about the challenges of international relief work. The truth is that it takes money and resources to help people half-way around the world. Raising funds is an important aspect of service.



3. It asks students to raise money for someone else rather than for something they want. Most students are unaccustomed to giving away money; they’re used to being recipients. This gives them a chance to give something away that they personally value.

Consider seeking out sponsor organizations or individuals to help defray the expenses. Another option is to ask for a small contribution from each family to cover the cost of shipping their child's book. Other schools have held book festivals to show off their students' books and raise money. Sponsors who contribute a $1 can sign the inside cover of the book.

Due to the cost of international shipping and delivery, we unfortunately cannot accept books without a participation fee.

If your school or organization cannot afford the participation fee, please consider seeking out sponsor organizations or individuals to help defray the expenses. We find that Rotary and Kiwanis clubs are often very willing to assist. Another option is to ask for a small contribution from each family to cover the cost of shipping their child's book. Other schools have held book festivals to show off their students' books and raise money. Sponsors who contribute a $1 can sign the inside cover of the book.

We encourage smaller groups to collaborate with larger institutions. We see this as a win-win-win situation - collaboration provides even more books for vulnerable children while spreading awareness among more of our own community members and allowing us to cover our shipping expenses.

1. A representative from your school or organization should register through our website. This person will then act as the contact person for all correspondence.



2. After registering, your contact person will receive an invoice for the participation fee via email. We ask that your payment be submitted to us within one month of receiving the invoice. We will send a receipt once we receive your payment.



3. Immediately after registering, your contact person will receive a username and password for our "Links for Registered Schools" page. From here, they can fill out our Sister School Selection Form and, later in May 2010, fill out our Online Shipping Form.



4. On the registration form, your contact person will have the option of immediately printing out our Facilitator Packet or having us mail it to them. If they choose to have us mail it to them, they will receive it within ten days. This has a summary of the project timeline, helpful tips and reminders, information about the shipping process, and handouts for other teachers at your school who will be helping to facilitate the project.



5. Within two months of registering, your contact person should submit our online Sister School Selection Form from the "Links for Registered Schools" page to be paired with a Ugandan school. You should choose a school that needs the kinds of books your students would like to make.



6. You can begin making books!



7. You can send ONE book or item to our office by March 15, 2010 to be personally delivered and photographed in Uganda. This is the ONLY way to get feedback from your sister school before the school year ends.



8. You will receive feedback from our delivery of your individual book/item as well as a photo and written update of your sister school by May 10, 2010.



9. Starting on May 15, 2010, you can take our online shipping tutorial and fill out the Online Shipping Form. You can access this from the "Links for Registered Schools" page with your username and password. After doing this, you will receive an email with our new warehouse address. You can send your complete shipiment of books and donated goods to our warehouse, postmarked between May 15 - June 20, 2010. Your finished books will be sent to Uganda via shipping container after the school year ends. You will not receive feedback on these books.



10. You can choose to send optional donations along to your sponsored school. Financial donations should be sent separately to our office address and should include instructions about how you would like the donation to be used.

We deliver and photograph one book or item (per school) personally so your school can get feedback within the same school year. All other books are sent after the school year ends in a shipping container. Sending this individual book or item is the only way to receive feedback from your sister school.

This item should be sent to us separately from other books so as to avoid confusion in shipping.


Your book or item should have an interesting or colorful cover, with your school's name and your sister school's name in larger letters. The cover will likely appear in the photo, and it's more meaningful when the cover conveys a message of friendship between the two schools. This cover does not necessarily have to relate to the book's contents.

This book or item should be no larger than a standard book (8.5" by 11") and can be:

• Any one book that your students made for the project



• A compilation of photos of your students working on the project or holding books they've made, or a tour of your school or hometown



• Letters from your students to the students at your sister school (bound together)



• A poster made by your students that folds to 8.5" by 11"

Please do NOT send the following:

• More than one item from your school



• Loose sheets of paper or photos. Please be sure to bind them together and mount photos on cardstock.



• Any compilation in a binder, photo album, or scrapbook (12" square format) - these are large and heavy



• Glass or other breakable objects



• Anything that weighs more than one pound



• Anything that does not fold to 8.5" by 11"



• For personal safety reasons, any item that has a specific street address on it. City and State are okay.

Please bear in mind that we actually carry these books in our suitcases, and we need to take over 400 of them. There are limitations on how much excess baggage we can purchase, so please respect our guidelines. Please do not send more than one item and insure that your item is not too large, too heavy, or too fragile.

Please send this individual book/item to our office address:



It should be sent separately from your payment or any other books.

The cover of this book/item should be labeled clearly with:

• Your name


• Your school's name, city and state (preferably in large letters)


• Your sister school's name (preferably in large letters)

At any time, you can browse all of our sister school profiles at the following link: Our Sister Schools. Here you can read about each school's demographics and book requests. We have tens of thousands of book requests in dozens of subject areas at every grade level. You can decide which school you’d like to be matched with based on their book requests.


Once you are registered, you receive a link that takes you to our Sister School Selection Form. From here, you can choose your school and the books you'll be making.

If you are registered for this school year, but you no longer have access to the page, please contact Abha at info@booksofhope.org and we'll be happy to send you a copy of the link again.

We have thousands of books requested in dozens of different subject areas (fiction and nonfiction, including math, social studies, English language literacy, science, health science, recreation, arts and crafts, and music. See our Possible Book Topics page here.) and you get to pick which school you’d like to be matched with based on what books they’ve requested. For example, if you would like to make elementary level science books with your students, you can school a sister school in Uganda that has requested elementary science books.

ALL books must be type-written. No handwritten books allowed for the sake legibility.

Here are some other recommendations in case you'd like them, but this is only one way to construct your books. As long as the books as legible, durable and colorful, feel free to experiment and be creative!

1. We encourage books with lots of text to be printed on a computer for the sake of legibility



2. Please use clean, easy-to-read fonts instead of flowery fonts (our readers are English language learners)



3. Once the text is printed, hand-made illustrations are great. Students are also welcome to be creative and use any medium they'd like. You can also collaborate with your art department for the illustrations.



4. Make the books colorful and attractive. Like children everywhere, our young audience is more likely to be drawn to a book that’s fun to look at.



5. Please include a letter and photograph (if possible) from the authors/illustrators. Rather than simply a biography of the author, this letter should be a message of hope and friendship to the children who will be reading the book.



6. Laminate the front and back covers; it's not necessary to laminate every page. It'll save you money and it'll be more ecologically friendly.



7. Three-hole punch or spiral bind the books or be creative with the binding. Just be sure the book bindings are solid and secure for durability. However, we don't recommend binders or photo albums as they are very heavy and bulky to transport.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ILLUSTRATING BOOKS

• DRAW! PAINT! COLOR!
• Cut pictures out of a magazine and make each page a collage
• Collaborate with your art teacher and make the books an interdisciplinary project
• Use a computer art program
• Use stencils to make creative shapes
• Use stickers
• Use ink stamps or other scrapbooking tools
• Use photographs taken by your students; students can even dress up like the characters and photograph themselves as if they were staging the book
• Create crayon rubbings of different objects
• Make a pop-up book!

No, we do not recommend that schools use blank books. Blank books are costly for schools to purchase and heavy (and thus expensive) for us to transport. Blank books are also more challenging to work with, as students would need to cut out type-written text and paste it into the blank book. See below: "What is the best way to make books?" for our recommendations.

No, we ask that you do not use 3-ring binders, scrapbooks, or photo albums as they are awkwardly shaped, very bulky and heavy and increase the costs of international shipping.

No, as of now, we do not officially work with any companies that bind book for schools. However, we welcome recommendations and we are open to partnerships. Please email Abha at info@booksofhope.org if you have any ideas you'd like to share.

Yes, donated or purchased books are welcome as part of your allotted number of boxes for shipping. We just ask that textbooks and other nonfiction books are not too outdated: no more than 10 years old and ideally less than five years old. Please include donated books in the same box as your final shipment of finished books.

Please send financial contributions separately to our office mailing address, in their own envelope (NOT with any shipment of books) with a letter indicating where you'd like your donation to go (the name of your sponsored school, the NGO you'd ike to support, Books of Hope, etc). Please make checks out to "Books of Hope" Cash is fine, too. We will insure that your contributions arrive properly at your school and will send you a receipt.

We have a list of requested donations that you can take a look at here: List of Needed Supplies. You are welcome to send any combination of student-make books, donated books, or donated supplies.

We ask all participants to use the United States Postal Service "ReadyPost 15 x 12 x 10-inch Mailing Carton"

These boxes are available at your local US Post Office and cost $3.19 per box. This cost is not included in your registration fee.

You can fit as much as possible into these boxes, as box weight is not a factor in your fee. In fact, for the sake of stability, we encourage you to pack them to the very, very top.


Please carefully follow the packaging instructions in our online shipping tutorial

Your final shipment should be sent to our warehouse address, which will be made available to registered schools after they complete our online shipping tutorial in May. The address has changed since last year, so please do NOT send your books to the previous warehouse address.

No, we have not taken teachers with us yet, though we have had several requests. At this time, we have no plans to bring volunteers along. Our delivery trips must take place during the school year in order to get feedback to schools before summer, so even if we were able to take volunteers, this might be an insurmountable limitation for most teachers.

We do have occasional volunteer opportunities for anyone in the Madison, WI area. Opportunities will vary throughout the year. Please contact Abha at 608-466-4534 if you're interested.