Clenching fists, flying kicks, snapping punches - Shaolin kung fu made a big impression on the children in Mabre N'guessan Valerie's village in Cote d'Ivoire when he was young.

"The Shaolin Temple is very famous in my country. I fell in love with Shaolin kung fu when I was 10 years old when I first watched The 36th Chamber of Shaolin," said Valerie, 23, referring to the classic 1978 kung fu movie starring Gordon Liu.

However, the dreams of the children in his hometown mostly faltered in poverty. With neither education nor training, many young people struggled to survive.