There are those who say that, in Rocinha, anything can happen. And can! Nerito Belarmino, 46 ??years old, showed this in practice and innovated with a simple but very efficient idea: paying for motorcycle taxi rides using a credit card. The initiative is unprecedented and has drawn attention in recent weeks through the streets of the community.
Known in Vila Verde as “Garçon”, Nerito works as a motorcycle taxi during the day and as a pizza maker at night. Born in the city of Orobó, in rural Pernambuco, Garçon has lived in Rocinha since 1982, is married and has three children.
Before opening his own business, he worked in several places, including Pizzaria Guanabara. “When I lost my job, I thought: what now? I started making little pizzas and selling them door to door, inside Rocinha. The locals loved it. So I started saving money.” Today, the pizzeria already has a fixed point, on the Vila Verde ramp.
“Pizza orders start coming in late afternoon, early evening. Before that, I’m riding in the mototaxi service.” Asked what led him to think about this possibility, he shoots: “It all got out of my head! I noticed that many people in Rocinha use credit cards. As I already used it at the pizzeria, I decided to test it in the mototaxi too and it worked”, says Garçon.
O serviço vem tendo boa aceitação e desperta a curiosidade das pessoas: “Eu vou para o trabalho de moto, quando estou atrasada. No final do mês, quando a grana fica curta, o cartão salva.Vou pegar o contato desse mototáxi.”, comenta Sabrina Silva (25), que mora na Rocinha e trabalha na Gávea. E ela completa: “Já vi esse cara passando na rua com a plaquinha do cartão, mas não tive oportunidade de falar com ele. Essa é uma idéia muito legal!”
Garçon afirma que já está sabendo da existência de outros mototaxistas recebendo pagamentos através do cartão de crédito e não se preocupa com a concorrência. Esse trabalho é um complemento, mas seu foco é outro: “Meu desejo é expandir minha pizzaria, quem sabe abrir filiais em outros bairros no Rio, ou até mesmo na minha cidade, em Pernambuco”.
He considers himself an entrepreneur and leaves a message for Fala Roça readers: “I used to sell bananas with my father at the fair in Pernambuco. When I arrived in Rio, I had nothing. I came with just a bag, not knowing anything around here. I raised all my children in Rocinha. If you want to change your life, you can. You have to want it!”
