A group of 10 volunteers left Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, on Friday to work in hospitals and schools in the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles.

The volunteers are among the first from China to be sent to African countries after the milestone China-Africa summit in Beijing last year.

China plans to dispatch 300 youth volunteers to Africa in three years.

The volunteers included five doctors, two nurses, two music teachers and a Chinese teacher. They were selected from more than 1,000 candidates.

The eldest member of the group is 39 years old and the youngest 23.

Zhe Zhiling, vice secretary of the Guangzhou committee of the Communist Youth League of China, said with seven volunteers below the age of 27, the group reflected the enthusiasm of the generation born in the 1980s for international affairs and dedication to humanitarian causes.

China pledged to strengthen China-Africa cooperation at the Beijing summit. The country plans to train 15,000 African professionals and send 100 senior agricultural experts to Africa.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)