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Yet in communism Marek Kotanski was the person who had the courage to tell that in the paradise of Peoples Republic of Poland there are actually existing: drug addicts, homeless and HIV positive people. He registered Monar association in the symbolic 1981 just few months before Martial Law were imposed. Marek Kotanski gained a lot of social trust. He believed that the people living on scares of society are there because society is constructed in a wrong way. He demanded people to construct new, better and fairer society.
The Centre for Homeless Mother
and Children Monar – Markot ‘Bajka” (Fairytale in Polish), was one of the
centers run by his organization. It consisted of 11 barracks. Each of them was
divided into separate studio flats. Residents shared bathrooms and toilets.
Among 750 residents, 500 were children up to age of 16. Some of them had been
living in the Centre for over nine years and nearly half of the children were
born in the Centre. The siblings often had the same mother but different fathers.
Most of children were at risk of early school leaving and they were often not
even able to read and write properly. Nearly 95 percent of adult residents were
out of work; they were living out of benefits and help gifts donated by private
sponsors.
