Gabriel

For the whole 12 years of his life, Gabriel has lived in one of San Salvador’s most notorious gang communities, based around one of the largest marketplaces in the city. The market is a repurposed multi-story carpark; falling down in places and covered in gang graffiti, it is far from an ideal place for children to spend their days.

Gabriel has always attended school in the community, but every day after his classes finished, he would join his mum at her stall to help her by frying potato chips and packaging them up to sell. Then, four years ago, he started attending activities at a child-friendly space run by Toybox’s partner in El Salvador, Viva. Since then, he has changed and grown up, learning skills and knowledge that will help him in the future.

"I live with my mum and my little brother, Juancito, as well as some of my aunts, uncles and cousins as well. I wake up at 7 each morning to go to school, then I go to the market to help my mum. Although I go to school, I don’t really like it because it’s a bit boring sometimes. My favourite part of the market is the open space where we play football just by the project.

I prefer to learn at the project. Before I started going, I was happy, but now I’m also happy because I feel safe there – it’s really the only place I like in the market. I love going because I can colour and paint. The teachers there supported us a lot during quarantine which meant that we always had food. I’ve also learned so much from them. Normally, children in the market face a lot of boredom because we aren’t allowed out to play and we get told off for even the slightest thing, but now I feel more relaxed and a lot more happiness in my life.

In the future, I hope that I have money so that I can help people who are poor. I’d also love to be a professional footballer and to play on a team in Brazil… either that, or just to be in Argentina where I just watched football all the time!

At the moment, the thing I want the most is that nothing bad happens to my family again – I wish my cousin was still alive because he was my best friend. Now, my mum and my dog are the most important things in my life.

My dog is called Tilin and I got him a year and half ago. He’s a real rascal and very playful but he used to be a street dog. Now, I have a lot of compassion for all animals on the street. He makes me feel so happy and he’s my best friend in the entire world. I look after him well – sometimes he escapes, but I always find him. I give him food and baths because he always gets very dirty!”