My name is Ivonice Powell, i'm 54 and have lived here in Devon since 1970 when i was brought here from Brazil. I was adopted from a Sao Paulo Favela because i had contracted Polio and my mother was too poor and had other children , so she let a Norwegian Missionary, who happened to be a nurse, adopt me.. a year after my adoption had been finalized in 1966 my adopted mother died. I have been in a wheelchair all my life, and never knew anything about my Brazilian family, until October 2013, when after yet another search, ( and i've been searching for my family since 1995 when i got my first computer) I only had my mothers and fathers names, no more details at all... oh, and the hospital i had been born in.. The day after i placed the advert, i got a reply, from a lady in Sao Paulo, who does voluntary work, re-uniting families and searching for missing people.. she told me that she had found my brother, within 3 days, my entire family had been notified of my existance.. and to my shock i am one of 14 children, and my birth mother is still alive.. The poverty i was born into, remains the same to this day, although modern technology is easily accessible for the majority of the population, education, and health, and human rights are not !! .. my family in Brazil and myself have now known each other via the internet, Facebook and Skype for 9 months now, communication is difficult, as i have not spoken Portuguese since i was ten years old, and due to lack of formal education and lack of electricity , power shortages etc... I am still separated from my family. I was a regular street entertainer in Exeter and further afield for 25 years & more, but have not been physically up to making myself heared on the high street, and now I am going to start busking again, in order to raise the £5.000 it will cost to transport myself and my husband and Grandaughter ( to whom we are mum and dad, since birth) to Sao Paulo, as i am unable to use public transport and my family in the vast majority live in higgledy piggeldy Favelas, where wheelchair movement would be practically impossible.. so, I am desperately trying to raise the funds so i can rent a ground floor flat somewhere central to where my family all live.. in Sao Paulo itself and Laranjal Paulista. For my entire life, i didn't not have a sense of identity, never feeling a part of where i've lived, because i was sent to a disabled boarding school in Hampshire from the age of 12 to 18, so as a child, never made connections with people on my school holidays here in Devon.. Finding my natural family, and all my brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces and great nephews and nieces, and knowing that i belong to a huge huge family who always knew of my existance and had themselves searched for me , but had been told i was taken to America.. I did write my story to the Express and Echo in November 2013, and included photos, i thought somebody might be interested in my story, I was given hopes that Globo Tv would be flying me over to be re-united with my family ,that i've never met or seen in 54 years.. but that was not to be. The World Cup starts today, and millions of people from Europe are going to be jetting their way over to my homeland to watch football, whilst my family are amongst the millions of poor Brazilians protesting against it.. and me, well... i'm just this disabled person on benefits who in general is looked upon by society as some fortunate one.
This is my story and here is a Portuguese song
https://soundcloud.com/ivonice-powell/desfado
This is my story and here is a Portuguese song
https://soundcloud.com/ivonice-powell/desfado
