I will always be there for those who need me
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Sr. Oľga Iváková was born on March 18th, 1955, in Liptovské Sliače. She spent her childhood in a Christian family, and so after graduating elementary school she set off to have a religious life. In 1970, Oľga entered the Congregation of School Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Znojmo. While there, she graduated from a Secondary Medical School and worked at a Social Care Institute for Mentally Disabled Children in Břežany, near Znojmo. Since 1979, Oľga has worked at the Department of Paediatrics in Žilina Hospital. She then moved to a newly founded Social Care Institute for Disabled Boys in Tvrdošín. Except carrying out her profession, she actively participated in religious life of the Franciscan congregation in secret. On March 27th, 1983, Oľga was detained and interrogated within the “Operation Vír (Eddy)” aimed against members of the secret Franciscan order. On April 1st, 1983 she was arrested and placed into the Žilina remand centre. There she endured 40 days of imprisonment and interrogations. Oľga was only released, along with many others, because of strong international pressure and protests against persecutions of religious people. In later years, she worked at the Department of Paediatrics in Ružomberok Hospital until 1990 when she found work at an orphanage in Ružomberok. Oľga also had a short stint in a religious house in Ľubochňa. In 2005, Sr. Oľga Iváková moved to a religious house in Okoličné, where she currently lives.
