EUROPE/SLOVAKIA - The testimony of a Slovak with an African heart

Monday, 29 April 2019 missionary animation pontifical mission societies poverty

SLOVAKIA

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The testimony of a Slovak with an African heart

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Bratislava (Agenzia Fides) - Among the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines flight, heading towards Nairobi which crushed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday 10 March, in addition to a Kenyan missionary and nun and several lay people involved in cooperation (see Fides 12/3/2019), there is also a forty-two year old Slovak, Danica Olexová, coordinator of the projects for the NGO Dobrá novina. During her working stay in Kenya, which was to last two months, she had planned several meetings with the NGO partners and had to collaborate on the documentary for the 25th anniversary of this organization.
As Fr. Ivan Kňaze, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Slovakia writes to Agenzia Fides, Danica Olexová collaborated with the PMS and is the author of the illustrations of the 2019 missionary calendar. Born on March 30, 1976 in Bratislava, after her degree in mathematics and geography she trained to become a teacher and since 2006 she dedicated all her energies to the themes of development in poor countries for the NGO Dobrá novina, preparing materials for education. She was very sensitive towards the poor and the marginalized in society.
In 2010 she became a development adviser in Nairobi, Kenya, working in the office for Dobrá novina and DKA Austria. Her task was to keep in touch with local partners, monitor ongoing projects and identify possible new partners. After returning to Slovakia in 2015, she worked again for Dobrá novina as project manager. Her work was professional and precise. She spoke Swahili and English very well, was creative and had a strong sense of justice.
She told the destinies of so many people with her camera and pen, collaborating with the biggest Catholic weekly Katolícke noviny, for which she wrote reports, interviews or articles on missions and on the theme of development, always attentive in describing the situation of poor people realistically, but without prejudice and with a connotation of hope. (MG/SL) (Agenzia Fides, 29/4/2019)