Polish Village Head in Waszulki Builds Community Spaces With Residents
Anna Lewikowska has served for 15 years as village head of Waszulki in northern Poland, creating shared meeting places together with residents. She says rural areas need leaders who earn trust through work.
In the village of Waszulki in northern Poland, in Nidzica municipality (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship), residents do not need to travel to town to meet neighbours, attend yoga classes or organise a shared event. Behind these initiatives is Anna Lewikowska, village head (sołtyska) for 15 years, a community leader and founder of the social cooperative "Sposób na Życie". In a story published by the Polish agricultural portal topagrar.pl, she stresses that the countryside is not a place where opportunities run out, and that close relationships are its greatest strength.
From the family farm to village head
Anna grew up on a farm of about 30 hectares run by her parents, with dairy cows, other cattle, horses, pigs and poultry. There were four children in the family, and all worked from an early age. She graduated from an agricultural school but is also trained as a customs officer and logistics specialist. As a child she joined the scouting movement, and later volunteered with the Polish Red Cross. In 2011, aged 26, she became village head of Waszulki, the youngest in Nidzica municipality. Residents encouraged her to run because they remembered her mother, who had held the post for several terms.
Spaces built together
Rebuilding trust and bringing old and new residents together took Anna about eight years. A women's project called "Aranżerki" created a flower garden at the village entrance, and later a park by the pond was planted with trees assigned to participants' birth dates. A playground was built from the village fund. In the community hall, which residents helped finish themselves, yoga is held every Wednesday, and the women founded a rural housewives' circle, "OAZA WASZULKI".
In 2018 the village took first place in the voivodeship in the "Clean and Beautiful Village" competition. The village area also includes Robaczewo and Kolonia Waszulki, with more than 400 residents in total. In Robaczewo, a play area was created on leased land, which the municipality later bought.
