{"id":6458,"date":"2025-12-23T11:05:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T10:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/?p=6458"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T10:05:41","slug":"defending-childrens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/defending-childrens-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending children\u2019s rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A conversation with Monika Wszo\u0142ek \u2013 owner of a law firm in Gliwice and winner of Charismatic Woman<\/em> \u2013 turns into a moving story about strong character, passion for work, and extraordinary social commitment. Monika shares details on her professional journey, work with children and incapacitated persons, as well as her family stories. She is an inspiring voice, balancing law with empathy, professional success with a deep mission to help others.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You are known for your great love for children.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m active in many fields, engaging in issues related to child protection. As a lawyer frequently handling family cases, I believe that a child to be born and develop properly, needs both parents. Oftentimes, it happens that a divorced woman, who doesn\u2019t restrict the child\u2019s contact with the father unwilling to participate in the child\u2019s life, is capable of raising the child well. On the other hand, an overprotecting mother, treating her child as a property and isolating them from others, in unaware of actually harming them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors are currently working on recognising parental alienation as a medical condition, as it\u2019s more and more becoming the cause of future suicide. This matter is definitely not talked about enough. An isolated child usually falls into a conflict of loyalty \u2013 they side with the parent they live with, even though, deep down, they long for contact with the other. Years later, they resent their father for not fighting hard enough for them, which subsequently leads to deeply tragic situations.
I mother three biological children myself, but in my heart I\u2019m a mother of fifty \u2013 I\u2019m the legal guardian of children from orphanages and persons under full interdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Monika Wszo\u0142ek with her children<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

How do you cope with this?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Great! I often laugh that my oldest \u201cdaughter\u201d is already 40 and calls me \u2018mommy\u2019. My 28-year-old \u2018son\u2019, Pawe\u0142, calls every day and asks, \u2018What\u2019s new, mommy? How are my sister and brother?\u2018 I\u2018ve got two wards who live with us. When you become a legal guardian, you often become the only close person for the incapacitated. We celebrate Christmas with family \u2013 I invite them to our home. Those living in nursing homes have their own Christmas parties, while those living alone are invited to my home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you cooperate with social welfare homes?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Incapacitated persons are most often those struggling with dementia or Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Oftentimes, seniors looking forward to seeing someone from their family with hope in their eyes, end up there \u2013 sadly, it\u2018s not uncommon for them to go without visitors for many months. Fortunately, social welfare homes are increasingly integrating with children\u2019s homes \u2013 grandparents read fairy tales to children and participate in joint activities. Whenever I go there, I take a bag full of chocolates with me, to bring them a little joy. My biological grandparents died in the Warsaw Uprising, so these places are also a space where I can feel the presence of them both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\u2018s this need to help others from? Were you already involved in social activities when at school?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I had a year-older cousin, Kasia, born disabled in the sixth month of pregnancy \u2013 she couldn\u2019t walk. I spent all vacations with my cousins at my grandmother\u2019s house in Masuria. Throughout the summer, I accompanied Kasia to workshops for people with disabilities. Even then, I told myself that if I managed to fulfil my life dreams, I would reciprocate my fate by helping those in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sport and travel are my passion \u2013 says Monika Wszo\u0142ek<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have you always wanted to be a lawyer?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

At first, I dreamed of becoming a prosecutor, because I grew up in a prosecutor\u2019s office. My father was a prosecutor. I come from Warsaw, but later on we moved to Krakow, and when my father took the position of heading the prosecutor\u2019s office in Gliwice, we lived in the prosecutor\u2019s office building for a quite a while, because our apartment wasn\u2019t ready yet. Every morning, I would go to my dad\u2019s office with my teddy bear to say hello to him. After graduating from high school, I had a dilemma: whether to study psychology or law. My father once said that I could be a good psychologist and a good lawyer, but as a lawyer I would have greater career opportunities. Psychologists earned very little at that time, so I decided to study law at the University of Silesia, and devoted my master\u2019s thesis to cassation in criminal law. Today, I merge both fields \u2013 I study psychology at the Humanitas Academy in Sosnowiec. Next year, I plan to defend my master\u2019s thesis on matters concerning parental alienation. This is an issue that truly moves me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you apply for attorney\u2018s training?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

No. I\u2018m an example of a lawyer who obtained the license without training. I have over twenty years of practice and passed the bar exam. For two decades, I worked side by side with my father, dealing mainly with commercial law. Four years ago, my father passed away. He was the most important person to me, personally and professionally. He was my role model. Today, I do what I\u2018m truly passionate about \u2013 family law. Although I handle criminal cases as well, I largely act as a guardian for children. I\u2018m always on the defense side. I\u2018ve been working with the Narodowe Centrum Praw Ojca in Warsaw for over a decade, but, instead of defending the rights of fathers, I defend the rights of children. I never give advice on reducing child support, I have my rules. My work is my passion. I love what I do. To this day, when I go to court holding my robe, I smile at it. I truly am proud of it.<\/p>\n\n\n

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What else makes you proud?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m proud of being exactly where I am \u2013 that I run my own law firm. I employ two wonderful women, whom I can completely rely on. I\u2018m happy of having so many wards I\u2019m so important to \u2013 this gives me great satisfaction. I really like my job. I\u2018m also proud I\u2018ve regained my self-esteem, severely shaken for years. Two years ago, I became seriously ill, and a year ago, I separated from my husband \u2013 it was a very difficult time for me. However, on New Year\u2019s Eve, I decided to take matters into my own hands: I took the children and went on vacation. Today, I\u2018m happy. I\u2018ve met someone special whom I share passions with and whom I can count on. I used to love participating in world car rallies \u2013 now we do it together. We travel a lot, sightsee, shop together, and enjoy life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your plans for the future?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I have lots of ideas \u2013 sometimes I joke of having ADHD, because I find it hard to sit still. For now, I don\u2019t want to reveal any details, until I start their implementation. But there\u2019s one thing I know for sure: I want to write a book. I have plenty of things to write about. Recently, I discovered that my dad was a child of the Holocaust \u2013 he was found years later. He came from one of the largest Jewish families in Krakow. The tenement at 12  J\u00f3zefa Street in Krakow\u2019s Kazimierz district, where, among other places, the Schindler\u2019s list was filmed, belonged to our family. My aunt comes from the Horowitz family, also on Schindler\u2019s list \u2013 they are our cousins. It\u2019s a story that deserves to be told\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorota Kolano<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conversation with Monika Wszo\u0142ek \u2013 owner of a law firm in Gliwice and winner of Charismatic Woman \u2013 turns into a moving story about strong character, passion for work, and extraordinary social commitment. Monika shares details on her professional journey, work with children and incapacitated persons, as well as her family stories. She is an inspiring voice, balancing law with empathy, professional success […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1115],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6481,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions\/6481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}