WE are 4-H, and 4-Hers reach with their clubs into their community, country and WORLD!

Hey Montana 4-Hers! We, the Ambassador Officer team, are calling on ALL of you to participate in this year’s state wide service project! We challenge YOU and your CLUB to promote and gather books in your communities that will be donated to children and adults in Africa. These books will help classrooms have access to bigger and better learning. So, what are you waiting for? The challenge starts now! Use the resources below to start collecting books in your local community.

“The students will benefit from your contribution both now and in the future. In times of limited resources, contributions such as yours make an incredible difference in what’s available to our students.” -Rev Mubuyaeta Imasiku, school overseer, Livingstone, Zambia

What books should we collect?

Books for Grade 1-12:

  • General leisure
  • English reading skills
  • English Literature
  • Science
  • Math
  • Health
  • Sports/vocation/hobbies

General and Other

  • Reference, Religion
  • Merck Medical Manuals
  • Merck Veterinary Manuals
  • Compton’s by Britannica student Encyclopedia
  • French novels and Encyclopedias

 University, College, Vocational

  • General leisure reading
  • Business and economics
  • Computer science
  • Medical and health
  • Science and engineering
  • Education theory
  • Math
  • Social science and history
  • English communications
  • Arts and humanities
  • Law

Books that are not accepted by BFA:

  • Textbooks that are more than 15 years old
  • Encyclopedias (unless otherwise stated)
  • Books that are “western centric”; (Examples: books about holidays that are only celebrated in the United States and Europe books on US history or historical figures, books about witches or magic like the Harry Potter series, murder mysteries)
  • Books that are not in good condition

What Should we do with the books once they are collected?

Books should be transported to Bozeman prior to or during Montana 4-H Congress. Congress participants will be helping to pack up books and getting them ready to send to the BFA warehouse in Minnesota. We are responsible for the shipping cost to the warehouse therefore, We kindly ask clubs/groups to donate or collect $0.50 a book to help cover shipping costs! If you have book drive it would be a good idea to put a change jar next to the collection box indicating any monetary donations would go towards shipping the books.

Where do the books go?

4-H globeBooks For Africa is the largest shipper of donated educational materials to the African continent in the world. We have shipped more than 34 million books to 49 different African nations since we were founded in 1988!

Books range from children’s picture books to text books for primary, secondary and post-secondary schools. Books are donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals, and organizations so that BFA can send not only good books, but enough good books for a whole class to use. They are sorted by subject and reading level by volunteers in our Minnesota and Georgia warehouses to prepare for shipment. BFA then ships the packed and sorted books in 40-foot sea containers containing about 22,000 books to schools and libraries in Africa. Each container can supply several school or community libraries with enough books to fill their shelves much more quickly than if books were sent in smaller quantities. Recipients order books by subject. This helps us make sure that BFA shipments reflect the needs of the schools they go to, making our books useful to communities in Africa.

Promotional and Informational Resources:

Books for africa flyer   Books for Africa Information Packetdirect info from BFA Organization

   Books for Africa Book Drive Poster Generic from BFA Organization

   Books for Africa Info Flyer Montana 4-H

   Books for Africa Book Drive Poster Montana 4-H