The dissidents were honest people looking for their own way of living
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Vojtěch Sedláček was born on 3 March 1947 in Prague. His father was an army officer, his mother worked as a nurse. After finishing elementary school and graduating from high school he underwent compulsory military service where he witnessed the 1968 invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies. Following his military service he took a job at a computer-producing factory ZPA Čakovice where he met Jan Sokol and other dissidents. He began attending house seminars, notably lectures given by Jiří Němec and Pavel Brázda. In 1977 he was among the first to sign the Charter 77. He was interrogated by the secret police and was transferred from being the head of the programming department to working in design and as an auxiliary. In addition, he also worked in the Jedlička’s Institute for the Disabled as a teacher and a tutor. In 1989 he took active part in the Velvet Revolution and then until 1992 served as the head of the Office of the Government. He founded Kepler’s Museum in Prague, worked as a director of the Civil Pension Fund and for a short while as a deputy minister of interior. In 2006 he received an award for the social businessperson of the year. At present he runs businesses creating employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
