Based in Slovakia, this two-person operation kicked off nearly five years ago with the mission of helping civilians learn to survive a CBRN incident.

 The project aims to teach civilians the basic principles of modern century personal protection. This consists of handling protective equipment, creating make-shift protective means in times of distress and understanding potential chemical, nuclear or biological threats.

“Since the Slovak state is objectively unable to provide a relevant educational platform for its citizens (never mind the protective equipment in case of a disaster), we’re trying to spread awareness about the state of things and educate people interested in the field of personal protection,” the company says. “The official state guidelines come from the 1980s and are heavily outdated, thus we decided to shed some light into this dying art of 21st century survival skills.”

To aid this mission, the group regularly releases instructional videos and infographics in English.

In general it’s difficult to drag people out of their comfort zones, the company says. The focus of the company’s marketing is around its motto: “you’re on your own”. It’s important for people to understand the core message behind it, the company says. “No one is coming to save them or provide them with protective equipment in case of a CBRN incident.”

Since they started to spread awareness about the importance of CBRN protection on social media, they have gained support from various donors from all around the world who provide cutting-edge CBRN equipment and other relevant means otherwise unavailable to civilians.

One of the highlights of their gear is the WCA detection setup that consists of a battery powered air pump that blows contaminated air through detection tubes or a Dräger accuro hand pump which works on the same principle, minus the battery powered capability.

The main setup consists of Avon FM53 respirator, C420 PAPR and depending on the training scenario, it’s either a Swift Responder 3 suit or a rubber suit made for local civil defense, called SOO-CO. In trainings for civilians, they teach them how to use gas masks with Avon FM12 respirators.

The biggest challenge facing the company is funding. No state officials were interested in providing the team with financial and material means to educate the civilian population on a local level, they said. “Then, of course, in order to raise awareness about the importance of CBRN civil protection we would have to convince people it’s not just a waste of time since most of people living in Central Europe have such topic and activities interlinked with the times of socialism and are in general reluctant to participate,” the company said.

“But with the help from generous individuals from various countries who like the idea of our project, we were able to make things happen and we’re happy to inform CBRN Academy is being recognized more and more, both locally and on social media.”