Javi Cascón hasn’t bought a single piece of clothing in four and a half years. Before that, he went a year and a half without eating chocolate. At 16, that was the first challenge he set himself, and it worked, so he kept going: 50 books in nine months, learning to write with his left hand, giving up shopping altogether.

None of these are stunts. Each one is a step on an uphill path Javi has been climbing since his teenage years, when he started asking himself a simple question: how can I make the world around me better? His answer was to start with himself.

Javi says his life rests on three certainties: feeling fortunate, feeling loved, and being a trusting person, both by trusting others and having confidence that what we do can make the world a better place. Giving up chocolate wasn’t about chocolate; it was proof to himself that he could be consistent. Going without new clothes isn’t about the clothes, either. It’s a way of battling the temptation of trying to buy happiness in a store.

At 19, Javi began working at the Fundación Lázaro (Lazarus Foundation), in shared apartments where young people and people without homes live side by side. There, he fine-tuned his idea of what a “home” is: not just a bed for the night, but a place where someone feels heard, loved, and encouraged to put their own gifts to use for others.

For Javi, the most important thing is that the people he meets are his brothers and sisters. “How could I let my brothers live on the street? No way. These are my brothers and sisters. If you truly believed they were your family, you wouldn’t let your brother, your mother, or your uncle live on the street. You’d put everything you have toward helping. So that’s what we’re working on.”