Sandra Roelofs

Roelofs ran as a candidate for the United National Movement in the 2016 Georgian parliamentary election. She ran in the Zugdidi district and was number two on the party list. The United National Movement won 27 (nationwide) party list seats. The initial Zugdidi district vote of 8 October 2016 was nullified in several polling stations and a repeat vote was held (there on) 22 October 2016 and again Roelofs placed second (in the district). Roelofs refused to participate in the Zugdidi district 30 October 2016 second round run-off election claiming the official results were falsified (adding not only in this election district but in the whole country). On 7 November (2016) she also gave up her party list seat and thus did not became an MP in the Georgian parliament.

During her period as first lady of Georgia, she was Stop TB Partnership Ambassador as well as a Goodwill Ambassador promoting Millennium Development Goals for WHO Europe. She was serving at the Board of the Global Fund fighting Aids, TB and Malaria from 2012-2015.

Roelofs acquired Georgian citizenship in January 2008 and is a dual Dutch-Georgian citizen.

Her autobiographical book The Story of an Idealist (2005) has been translated into Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Turkish, Azerbaijani and English.

From 1999 to 2003, Roelofs was a visiting lecturer of French language at Tbilisi State University and was a radio correspondent for Dutch radio. Beyond her native Dutch, Roelofs speaks French, English, German, Russian, and Georgian.

In 1998 Roelofs founded charity foundation SOCO which has the primary focus of implementing the programs funded by western European and Georgian companies and individuals and is aimed at supporting low income families. Since setting new targets in 2007, SOCO has been actively taking care of reproductive health and child welfare in Georgia. In 2007 Roelofs founded Radio Muza, the first Georgian radio dedicated solely to classical music. which functioned until 2014.

Roelofs and Saakashvili have two sons, Eduard (b. 1995) and Nikoloz (b. 2005).

Sandra Roelofs was born in Terneuzen, Netherlands. In 1991 she graduated in French and German languages from the Erasmushogeschool in Brussels and in 1993 attended courses at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. She met Mikheil Saakashvili in 1993 in Strasbourg and later that year moved to New York City where she worked at Columbia University and a Dutch law firm. In 1996 the couple came to Georgia, where Roelofs worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tbilisi.

Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs–Saakashvili (also spelled Saakasjvili; Georgian: სანდრა ელისაბედ სააკაშვილი-რულოვსი , translit.: sandra elisabed saak'ashvili-rulovsi , Ukrainian: Сандра Елісабет Рулофс-Саакашвілі , Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsɑndra eːlisaˈbɛt ˈrulɔfs saːkɑʃˈvili] , Georgian pronunciation: [sɑndrɑ ɛlizɑbɛt rulɔfsi saːk'ɑʃvili] , Ukrainian pronunciation: [ˈsɑndrɐ elisɐˈbɛt ˈrulofs saːkɐʃˈwili] ; born 23 December 1968) is a Dutch–Georgian activist and diplomat who was the First Lady of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, when her husband Mikheil Saakashvili was president of the country.