Olga was present during the Beslan school hostage crisis, which began in September 1, 2004 when armed Chechnyans took hundreds of schoolchildren and adults hostage. During the crisis Takaeva joined psychologists in supporting the hostages and providing them with food, water and prayer. When the standoff entered its third day, shooting erupted between Russian security forces and the hostage takers and continued for four hours, killing 344 civilians, 186 of them children. Hundreds more were wounded. “It is impossible to explain the horror of those minutes and the terrible shock at seeing people coming towards us, stained with the blood of children,” she writes. As one of the coordinators of the social movement, "For the Health of the Nation," Takaeve is engaged in charitable efforts aimed at assisting the invalids, orphans, and parents lost in the Beslan tragedy. She also assists graduates of Beslan schools in gaining admission to higher educational institutions in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Vladikavkaz.