José Luis Dubón López remembers the day he first entered a classroom. He was six. The walls were made of sand-and-clay bricks, the teacher was unqualified, and the lessons – when they happened – were fleeting. But even then, he knew education was the way to the life he wanted.
“There was one teacher, and he was violent toward us,” José Luis recalls. “He was barely literate. He’d write on the board and then leave.”
That one teacher taught the same lessons to children, teens, and adults. Even when José Luis could get to school, he faced challenges at home that made learning tough.
“My father, who couldn’t read or write, believed school was a waste of time,” says José Luis, who lives in Chalatenango, El Salvador. “He thought I wouldn’t learn how to work in the fields.”
A sponsor’s belief
But everything changed when José Luis became a sponsored child with Plan International. The support was both practical and deeply personal.
“To encourage my parents to keep sending me to school, they gave me fabric for uniforms, notebooks – everything we needed to study,” he explains. “They even gave us a canoe so we could catch and sell fish for extra income. They helped us repair our roof and build proper latrines and a wash basin at home.”
But it was the emotional support from his sponsor that really made a difference. When José Luis’ parents wanted him to leave school to work in the cornfields, it was her letters – filled with encouragement and belief – that became his north star.
“I used to tell her about my dream of becoming a teacher,” he recalls. “She’d write back, saying, ‘You can do it.’ That was very encouraging. She marked my life as an adult, a father, a professional. Back then, my parents couldn’t imagine me going to university. But she could.”
Overcoming challenges, pursuing a dream
“My parents – especially my father – felt obligated to send me to school to receive Plan’s support,” José Luis says. The family was facing hardship: After fleeing to Honduras during a civil war, they had returned to a community in El Salvador with no schools, few jobs, and widespread alcoholism.
“Violence was common, including domestic violence in nearly every home – even mine,” he shares. “If I saw my father drunk, I would start crying and trembling because I knew violence was coming.”
Despite this, José Luis held onto a dream: to become a teacher and help children avoid the pain he had endured.
From police officer to educator
After high school, José Luis joined the national police service to earn money for university. His work focused on drug abuse and family violence prevention programs. After two years, he had saved enough to enrol in university and pursue a degree in early childhood education.
“I loved working with children, youth, and parents,” he says. “For eight years, I worked with families affected by gang violence. We started soccer schools, athletics clubs, and organized tournaments with parents to prevent violence.”
He also completed a diploma in the Culture of Peace, funded by Plan International, focusing on violence protection. His passion and leadership stood out – so much so that a Plan representative said, “We need him at Plan!”
Coming full circle
José Luis’ connection with Plan began when he was six years old, and he remained involved even before he officially joined the organization as a staff member in 2008. A year before graduating from the sponsorship program at age 18, he volunteered to help other families understand the program by debunking myths, sharing his own story, delivering letters from sponsors, and encouraging children to write back.
“I simply shared my experiences,” he says. “At the time, many refugees lived in our community, and conditions were very difficult. I wanted other children to feel the same hope I did.”
Now, after 10 years of police service and a lifetime of community engagement, José Luis works as a community development facilitator with Plan International in Chalatenango, supporting families in the same program that once supported him.
“Parents who never had the chance to study – many of whom struggled with alcoholism –now have more opportunities for their children to finish high school,” he says proudly.