Former Angolan school dropout flies higher with Chinese gift

On the stage of a grand Chinese theater in Beijing, Jose Lourenco and his students ignited the passion of all audience with their Angolan traditional dance on Jan. 29.

Who could image that the once poor boy could step on the stage almost every year to join his school's annual gala in China?

Four years ago, when Lourenco was forced to drop out of school due to poverty, he spent his days in the street vending cheap stuff to add to his struggling family's income.

Despite being an outstanding student in junior school he had no professional skills and was assigned to a hardscrabble life.

Then something happened that the 25-year-old Angolan says changed his destiny.

In 2014, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Angola as part of his four-nation visit to Africa and inaugurated the BN Vocational School (BNVS) in capital Luanda.

Founded in Beijing in 2005 as a non-profit school to teach skills to the children of migrant workers, BNVS today has nine branches in China and a school in Angola, BNVS Angola, which is co-financed by the Chinese and Angolan sides.

Lourenco joined the school and one-year training made him a computer proficient and a confident person. As one of the first graduates from the school in Angola, he was admitted for his outstanding performance in study and other fields and is now a computer teacher there.

The 183 cm-tall big boy is versatile in singing, dancing and drawing, therefore he has showcased his accomplishments individually or collectively many times at the annual BNVS gala held in Beijing, on behalf of BNVS Angola, which is boosting vocational education in the southern African country and nurturing a skilled young workforce who can contribute to the economic development of their country.

"I never dreamed of continuing my studies," Lourenco told Xinhua. "But China and BNVS saved me from a street vender's life," adding that his destiny had been changed by BNVS, which helped him integrate into the workforce market.

"I had never dreamed of being able to have a decent job like this in such a respected school," he said.

With his salary of 4,200 U.S. dollars a year, he can help his parents and six siblings live a better life. Though the seventh largest country in Africa boasts vast oil and mineral reserves, Angola's gross national income per capita, according to the World Bank, was only 3,450 dollars in 2016.

"A job means hope," the Chinese premier had told Angolan students at the official opening of the charitable school. On that day, nearly 70 Angolan youngsters from low-income families, who would be trained to become electricians, masons and machine operators, including Lourenco, were infused with hope for a better future.

So far, around 300 local students have graduated from the school, with over 70 percent of them finding jobs.

Yao Li, the founder of BNVS, told Xinhua that the school's goal is to help young people get employed through vocational education and realize targeted poverty alleviation.

In this context, China has a rich experience. The government's targeted poverty alleviation strategy focuses on providing education to help the impoverished build up their self-development capacity.

The BNVS is a prime example of that strategy. China's first tuition-free, non-profit senior secondary-level vocational school has helped nearly 6,000 young people in China earn their own living and contribute to society in different ways.

In the past five years, over 65 million new jobs have been created in China and more than 60 million people lifted out of poverty.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said that China has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty, calling it "one of the greatest stories in human history."

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said "China is a model for parts of the world. China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and now China is looking to contribute to other countries' development."

Lourenco, one of the beneficiaries of the BNVS model, is a vivid example of China helping to alleviate poverty abroad through building up skills, as part of the vision of the world as a community of shared future and the effort of pursuing common development.

"BNVS Angola not only provided me with the vocational skills needed in the employment market but also inspired my mind. I know the difference between survival and living a life now," Lourenco said.

Currently, he is studying computer engineering at night college and hopes to gain a university degree. He has thoughts of studying in China some day.

Lourenco loves the song that made Chinese rock singer Wang Feng a star in 2004 -- Flying Higher.

He hums from it, "Reality is like a pair of shackles, chaining me ... I know the happiness I seek lies in the higher skies. I want to fly higher, fly higher."