Neighborhood Civil Defense is an initiative of Dawid Komuda, a survival instructor and owner of the OldCraft Survival survival school, which specializes in carrying out simulations in extreme winter environments. He completed the Firefighter-Rescuer course for the Volunteer Fire Brigades. Dawid also participated in relief activities in the flood areas in 2024, together with the ZHP Granica unit.
We are talking in Warsaw's Ochota district, on Radomska Street, opposite the block where Dawid lives. On the same day, there was no hot water in many streets of the district. The fault will last for several days. This is one of the situations for which Neighborhood Civil Defense can prepare.
This is my initiative and an idea was born in my head to train residents. I run my own survival school, I do it professionally and I wanted to give something back to the residents. And this whole program is a bit of an experiment so that we can create instructions on how to create a community and how to act in crisis situations in other cities - emphasizes Dawid.
The originator of the project, which operates in Warsaw's Ochota district, has already trained approximately 300 people. Participants learned, among other things, the basics of communication, self-defense, preparing supplies and using power generators. Field exercises were also organized.
One of the tasks was to take a backpack, find a source of water and bring it home. It wasn't just about getting water. The participants had to check how heavy the backpack would be, how far they would have to walk with it and whether they would be able to transport it at all. Dawid argues that such simple exercises allow you to discover problems that you don't think about on a daily basis.
People don't realize such simple things. Can I carry this backpack? Isn't a transport trolley a better solution? How far am I to the nearest safe place? - says the initiator of the Neighborhood Civil Defense.
Not only war
The name of the initiative may be associated with preparations for war. Komuda emphasizes, however, that there are many more scenarios. In a situation of a major crisis, the state will have to deal with the most serious threats first. Therefore, as he explains, residents should be prepared for it.
Participants of the Neighborhood Civil Defense have already practiced, among others: how to survive 24 hours without electricity. For Anna Janczur, one of the program participants, it was a test showing how many things need to be remembered.
You think to yourself: I have cans, I have water, I have a stove, I have candles, I have a flashlight, I even have a battery-powered radio. I have everything. But then comes the challenge: no electricity, no internet. And what to do? – he says.
As Anna emphasizes, during such an exercise it turned out that you need to take into account even issues that at first seem completely unimportant - for example how to use the toilet without access to water, or what to do for many hours without a phone or the Internet.
The list of basic equipment included a supply of water and food, a flashlight, batteries, a radio, candles and a small stove. But Anna also pays attention to a less obvious element of preparation: entertainment.
You also need to be able to take care of yourself or, for example, your children. Remember how it's done "analog". That's why it's worth having board games or crosswords at hand, he adds.
"The most important thing is that we build trust"
For the creator of Neighborhood Civil Defense, however, preparing for a blackout, fire or other crisis situation is only part of the whole idea. The most important thing is to get to know people living in the immediate area.
This is the most important point of this program, i.e. integration, says Komuda. In his opinion, you can also acquire survival knowledge on your own. However, it is much more difficult to build a network of people who know each other, trust each other and can help each other in case of problems.
Therefore, during the meetings, residents not only learn how to operate the generator or how to obtain water. They just talk to each other. They meet people living in the same building, on the same street or in the immediate vicinity.
Anna Janczur is one of the people who found this out in practice. She came to her first meeting in November. As she says, she was interested in survival, but it quickly turned out that the initiative offered much more.
Thanks to one of the integration meetings, she met a woman whom she taught to crochet. In return, she heard about the choir operating on Radomska Street, which she later joined.
It works on very different levels, he emphasizes.
Neighbor to the rescue
People of various nationalities participate in the initiative. The meetings were attended by, among others, residents from Ukraine, Belarus, Pakistan and Turkey. There are also people interested in the idea from outside Warsaw and even from outside Poland.
Dawid emphasizes that this is why he does not want to build a formal structure. Neighborhood Civil Defense is to be a dispersed network of people who know each other and can help each other.
The most important thing is that we build trust, he says. He adds that a year earlier he did not know some of the people living in his immediate neighborhood. Today they can lend each other things, help or bring something they need.
Komuda wants such small networks to be created within subsequent blocks, communities and neighborhoods in the future. For now, he describes the project as an experiment whose effects will only be assessed in a year or two.
A topic that arouses emotions
However, not everyone likes the idea. Komuda admits that the topic of civilian preparation is sensitive. It happened that residents reacted negatively to posters informing about the initiative. He also failed to find interest from some of the institutions to which he approached with a proposal to organize free meetings.
He finances the activities of the Neighborhood Civil Defense. The Cultural Center in Ochota and MAL in Grójecka Street help organize meetings by providing space.
Komuda emphasizes that he does not want to create an atmosphere of fear. On the contrary - in his opinion, it is about taming crisis situations and showing that you can prepare for them without assuming the worst-case scenario.
Anna Janczur also emphasizes that, in her opinion, a longer blackout is more likely than a war.
I believe more that we will have a blackout, such as recently in a large district of Berlin, than that bombs will actually start flying over us in Warsaw, he says.
Therefore, the basic principle of Neighborhood Civil Defense is much simpler than its name might suggest: it is worth being prepared, but you do not have to immediately assume the end of the world.
