MONAR is a non-governmental organization that helps people in difficult life circumstances and who may be socially excluded, are homeless, living with AIDS or addicted to al¬cohol and drugs. The organization was founded by the Polish humanist and psychologist Marek Kotanski in 1978. MONAR is not based on any specific political or religious ideas, but on universal values such as goodness, justice, love, respect for others and for oneself. The organization operates in accordance with the ethical code and good practice standards adopted by similar orga¬nizations around the world. Today MONAR is one of the biggest organizations in Europe working in this field and every year it serves more than 30,000 persons in Poland.
Goals and The Mission
The mission of the Association MONAR is to care for every person who may have found him/herself in a difficult life circumstance, in the spirit of love, tolerance and respect for human rights and human dignity.
MONAR believes that nobody is ‘lost’ and that everyone deserves to be given a chance to recover their own place in life and society.
MONAR promotes life without drugs, attitude of frankness and sensitivity to the needs of others, responsibility for one’s own life and faith in the unlimited possibilities of a human.
The MONAR Association implements its mission by creating and maintaining conditions for a worthy and dignified life. Its services are offered to people who live on society’s margins, to drug-dependent people, the homeless, ill, lonely, poor and helpless, those living with HIV/AIDS, to children from vulnerable groups, to political refugees and to all those who may have gone astray in some way.
The goals of MONAR are:
• To safeguard and promote health,
• To provide social assistance, including aid to families with socioeconomic disadvantages and help in overcoming these disadvantages,
• To provide charitable work,
• To work on behalf of minorities,
• To work on behalf of the handicapped,
• To promote employment and career training for those without work or threatened by unemployment,
• To uphold and protect the rights of women and to address equality between men and women,
• To uphold and protect the rights of children,
• To work towards economic growth as well as entrepreneurial growth,
• To promote the growth of community and society,
• To promote study, enlightenment, education and development,
• To succor rest and relaxation, including travel within the country, for children,
• To promote culture and to protect cultural traditions,
• To promote an active social culture as well as sport,
• To succor in the protection of ecology and animals, as well as natural heritage,
• To help other non-governmental organizations and public entities technically, through education or information exchange,
• To work towards order and public safety, as well as counter social pathologies,
• To work towards European integration as well as the development of cross-cultural contacts and cooperation,
• To promote and organize volunteering.
