When in 1993 a citizen of the Dutch Kingdom Sandra Roelofs met a handsome Georgian student Mikheil Saakashvili, no one could even imagine that in the future she was destined to become the wife of the president of the Caucasian republic. As the first lady of Georgia, she never openly interfered in politics, but at the same time she was always a reliable support for her husband.
Education and hobbies
Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs was born on December 23, 1968 in the Dutch town of Terneuzen. She is Flemish by nationality. As a child, Sandra wanted to be a writer. She published her early stories under a false name. She studied at the Institute of Foreign Languages (Brussels) and the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg). He is a lawyer and translator by profession. In addition to his native Dutch, he speaks English, German, French, Russian and Georgian. He is fond of playing the piano and flute, well versed in painting.
Meeting with Mikhail and wedding
The first visit of Sandra Roelofs to Georgia took place even before she met her husband. After graduation from the institutethe girl got a job at the Red Cross and in 1992 visited Kutaisi on a humanitarian mission, bringing with her 20 kg of garden seeds from the Netherlands. The following year, Roelofs prepared a fatal meeting with a handsome young Georgian. Mikhail and Sandra met in Strasbourg in the student cafe of the Institute of Human Rights. There, the future president of Georgia underwent an internship, and the girl attended courses before a working trip to Somalia. Introducing himself to Sandra, Mikheil Saakashvili said that he came from Georgia (that's how the name of his native country sounds in English), but not from the one in America. The tall and prominent guy immediately fell in love with Roelofs, and she fell in love with him at first sight. Since that time, young people have practically never parted.
A few months after the fateful meeting, Sandra Roelofs flew to New York. The biography of this period of her life is very rich: she combined work in a branch of a large Dutch human rights company and Columbia University and was preparing for the wedding with her chosen one. The marriage of young people was registered on November 17, 1993 in New York. The ceremony turned out to be modest, the bride and groom were wearing ordinary clothes. The newlyweds flew to Tbilisi to get married, and a magnificent wedding took place there. The honeymoon of Sandra and Mikhail took place in the capital of Ukraine, where the young husband studied at the Faculty of International Relations of the University. T. Shevchenko in Kyiv.
Sandra's move to Georgia
In 1995, Mikhail Saakashvili became a father for the first time: his wife gave him the first child, Eduard. Happy after a yearfather brought his young wife and son to Tbilisi. There, the woman got a job at the Dutch consulate and a branch of the Red Cross Committee. Sandra learned the Georgian language and quickly adapted to life in her husband's homeland. From 1999 to 2003 she lectured in French at Tbilisi University. In 2005 she gave birth to her second son. The boy was named Nikoloz. At the same time, she published her autobiographical book, in which she talked about meeting her husband and life in America.
Life as First Lady
After returning to Georgia, Mikhail began to take an active part in the political life of the country. In November 2003, the Rose Revolution took place in Georgia, after which the President of the State, E. Shevardnadze, resigned. Saakashvili was one of its active organizers. On January 25, 2004, the Georgian people elected him as their president. Sandra Roelofs became the first lady of the country. From that moment on, she began to feel the increased attention of the media to her person.
Always elegantly dressed and discreet, Georgians liked Saakashvili's wife. She did not get into politics, preferring to deal with children and charity. Trying to show her closeness to the people, Sandra went to work as a nurse in a maternity hospital. From time to time, Roelofs confessed her love to Georgia, which helped to raise her husband's authority. But gradually the society began to be disappointed in Mikheil Saakashvili. A wave of discontent rose in the country when it became known that the first lady with children was vacationing abroad, spendingdaily for 15 thousand dollars from the state treasury. Trust in the presidential family began to decline. Various unpleasant rumors about Saakashvili's wife began to appear in the media. Sandra was credited with Jewish origin, filming in porn films, working for the US special services. It was difficult to refute such claims, so many people chose to believe them.
During her husband's presidency, Sandra Roelofs founded the Soho Non-Governmental Charitable Foundation, which helps children, the disabled, pensioners and other categories of citizens in need of protection. In 2007, Saakashvili's wife in Kyiv received the "Woman of the Third Millennium" award, awarded to the most respected ladies of our time.
Departure from Georgia and further fate
The title of first lady Sandra wore for almost 10 years. On November 17, 2013, exactly 2 decades after his marriage to Roelofs, Saakashvili wrote a letter of resignation. After that, the ex-president of Georgia, together with his wife and children, flew to Brussels, and then to the United States. In 2014, several criminal cases were opened against Saakashvili in his native country, and his family's property and bank accounts were seized. After leaving Georgia, Sandra wrote on social networks that she hopes to return to the country that has become her second home in the near future. But so far her wish has not come true.
In the summer of 2014, it became known that Roelofs, along with her colleagues at the World He alth Organization, was going to fly on a working visit to Australiaon the same Boeing that was shot down in the sky over the Donbass. At the last moment, the woman changed her mind and decided to stay in Holland with her son, which saved her life. All her colleagues who flew on the infamous plane died. Saakashvili announced this on the air of the Ukrainian channel.
Roelofs' life today
Now the former president of Georgia is trying to make a political career in Ukraine. Sandra is still engaged in social activities and supports her husband in all his endeavors. In the spring of 2015, the Dutch director I. Smits made a documentary about Roelofs "Being with the President". In it, the audience is presented with a biography, Sandra's personal life during the period when she was the first lady of the Republic of Georgia. After watching the film, it becomes clear that thanks to this strong-willed and ambitious woman, her husband managed to become president.
