Sandra Roelofs

Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs Saakashvili ( born December 23, 1968 in Terneuzen, the Netherlands) is the wife of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. She holds a doctorate translator works as a radio presenter and perceived with her husband ceremonial duties for Georgia. Since 2008 she has besides the Dutch and Georgian citizenship.

Life

She grew up in a wealthy family. In her youth she worked as a shop assistant in a bakery. In 1991, she completed a course of study at the National Economic Institute for Translators in Brussels, worked as a translator for German and French.

In 1993 she met her future husband at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg know, moved to New York with Saakashvili and married the end of the same year. She worked there at Columbia University and a Dutch law firm.

1996, the couple moved to Tbilisi in Georgia. She worked for the Dutch Consulate and the Dutch radio, organized an exchange program for managers from the Netherlands and was soon regarded as the first unofficial ambassador of the Netherlands in Georgia. To this day, she maintains contact with their country of birth, brought in October 2004 concluded a partnership between the port cities of Poti ( Georgia) and Terneuzen and Vlissingen (Netherlands).

On behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, she worked on the development of welfare structures in Georgia. In 1997 she founded the non-profit foundation SOCO, school children, families with many children, refugees and needy seniors dedicated. In 2004, she raised funds for the international HALO Foundation for landmine clearance, took over the patronage for an anti - AIDS program in Georgia and the Jazz Festival in Tbilisi.

From 1999 to 2003 she was a guest lecturer at the Tbilisi State University, wrote a thesis on linguistic aspects of the French language in Belgium and taught French at the Caucasus School of Business. 2005-2008 she completed a nursing degree in Tbilisi. In 2007 she founded the first classical music radio station in Transcaucasia, Radio Musa. Once a week they hosted there own show.

Roelofs speaks Dutch, Georgian, English, German, French and Russian. Together with Saakashvili she has two sons, Eduard and Nikoloz.

Writings

• Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs: De First Lady Georgie van: Het verhaal van een idealiste. Uitgeverij archipelago, Amsterdam / Antwerp 2005, ISBN 90-6305-170-0