From the hood to Europe: after going to Portugal as a volunteer, a young man begins his dream of making the favela bilingual

The PLT4Way English School expanded its operations nationally and attracted students even abroad, always with the mission of making the favela bilingual

16.11.23

The PLT4Way English School, better known as 4Way, is a socially responsible institution that is making a difference in the professional, cultural and social life of young adults from the favelas of São Paulo. And with the changes, necessary due to the pandemic, it ended up expanding nationwide and even conquered students abroad.

What’s their differential? For every three paying students, a full scholarship is provided to one socially excluded person living in the favela.

Upon returning from a volunteer work experience in Portugal, where he spent two years and learned to speak English, Diogo Bezerra gained access to new opportunities when he returned to São Paulo and even tripled his salary due to the fact that he became bilingual. Knowing that many young people from the favela did not have the same opportunity to learn the language, and aware that traditional language schools were far from the reality of these young people, Diogo created 4Way.

4Way became a school of social impact, which transforms the lives of several people living in the favelas and outskirts of their hometown.

Diogo Bezerra is 28 years old, graduated in Marketing from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi and is studying Publicity and Propaganda at Universidade Sumaré. In this interview, he told me a little about the project, its history and main inspirations.

Neuza Nascimento: Where did the idea of creating 4Way come from?

Diogo: I always wanted to study because I came from a relatively poor family, and within my journey my mother always encouraged me to transform my reality so as not to have the same reality that she could offer us, her children. In addition to encouraging me, she always put me among people who did the same. During a trajectory of years I had contact with several young people who were not part of my reality, they had the opportunity to study English, and many of them were getting really cool job opportunities. Their realities were being transformed and this helped to increase their capabilities. So I had the desire to also learn English, but when I went to look for a school with that intention, I saw that I didn’t have the money to pay for it because I was from a family of 10 children. I’m the fifth. This story with English didn’t take long, but the desire to learn remained in my mind and heart. At 19 I had an opportunity that was very different from my reality, which was going to Portugal, where I had contact with several young people from different parts of the world and everyone knew how to speak English, even the few Brazilians who were part of my group.

Neuza Nascimento: How did you manage to go to Portugal?

Diogo: I went as a volunteer. There, I was the only one who didn’t know how to speak English, but because I lived with these people I started to learn while we were working together.

Neuza Nascimento: And how was your return home?

Diogo: After two years I came back to my reality. I usually say that I went from the favela to Europe and back to the favela again. When I arrived in the favela, in the hood where I lived, I started to have other opportunities just because I spoke English. In 15 days I managed to join a multinational company earning three times more than I earned when I left Brazil. With that, I started to make some dreams come true, like starting university, I did an exchange program in England and built a house, even inside the hood, for my mother. When I got back to the favela I thought ‘wow, I’m the only one having this opportunity here, I’m the only one reaching these goals and the young people from my neighborhood are not’. So I asked myself: ‘what made me have these opportunities?’, and I realized that it was English. Then I got the idea. As I had the desire to undertake, I thought of combining the two. I decided to bring young people together, make them learn English and also make a source of income out of it, because it’s not possible to live on a dream. With that I went after it, I invited my business partner, Diego Ramos, and then we managed to build a business where we have already earned more than R$200,000 during this entire journey. We had the opportunity to receive an investment from the Reality Show Shark Tank Brasil. The business started in 2016, was formalized in 2017 and so far everything is going well.

Neuza Nascimento: Where does the project work?

Diogo: In the beginning, when the work was face-to-face, 4Way served communities in the East Zone of São Paulo. But with the expansion to the online model, today the school has reached communities in different states of Brazil, such as Bahia, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, Maranhão and others. Today we only work online, we don’t have a headquarters. We have two offices, one in Barra Funda and the other in the East Zone, but only the administration works in these places.

Neuza Nascimento: What are the purposes of the project?

Diogo: The main purpose is to provide access to quality English and make the favela bilingual. But 4way above all, was born to give opportunities! In the history of Brazil, we perceive a stark inequality, especially in black communities. Most of the population is poor, and most of the population is black, and it’s no coincidence! For a long time, black people were deprived of access to education, growth and development in all areas, we need to somehow reverse this situation. The story of 4Way is a revolutionary story, we are changing the picture of Brazil for the better. Access to English enables employability, knowledge of the world, the possibility of traveling, cultural enrichment, and this is what our school brings to our scholarship students.

Neuza Nascimento: How did the name 4Way come about?

Diogo: From the English translation, “four paths” and also, it makes it seem, in English, “your way or your way”.

Neuza Nascimento: How many direct beneficiaries are there today?

Diogo: More than 600 people impacted. Maybe now, at the end of the year, we will be reaching almost 800 people.

Neuza Nascimento: Is the business already self-sustaining?

Diogo: Yes, by selling English courses in the language teaching market. The entire team is paid.

Neuza Nascimento: What were the biggest challenges?

Diogo: There were several challenges on this business journey, such as overcoming the fear of going wrong. I didn’t know if it was going to work or not. I depended on my work, I left it, but I still took care of my mother and two younger brothers. I thought there was no other way for me to follow towards success. During this journey, I even looked for a job because the first salary in the business was R$40.00 a month and, for one year it was R$100.00 a month and after almost two years, R$1000.00. It only started to pay off after three or four years. And the project’s biggest challenge is still to create a standard so that we can grow exponentially, achieve a franchise standard, a standard that can add more people.

Neuza Nascimento: And victories?

Diogo: There are several, small and large. The first, personal, was being able to live off the business alone, the second was the investment received and the visibility achieved. Another victory was that we, the team as a whole, were able to pass on the knowledge we had to other people, such as entrepreneurs, for example. The fact that we are a team makes development much easier, otherwise we get bogged down. We have several students who, because of our course, were able to participate in job interviews, they developed in college.

Neuza Nascimento: Were you able to continue in activity during the peak of the pandemic?

Diogo: At the peak of the pandemic, the business almost collapsed, but we managed to get up quickly and continue to benefit people. We did a crowdfunding with the support of Fundação Instituto Setúbal and then the business continued to grow. But it was a big blow for us, we had a big drop in students, from 100 to 30. But difficulties also hide opportunities. Due to the quarantine, our business became online and with that, we ended up expanding our reach on a national scale, bringing students from communities across the country, we even had students from outside Brazil. Today we continue to grow and impact more and more broken areas. We are working on aligning the business’s digital marketing, building a sales team, creating new products.