Background
Sandra E. Roelofs was born in Terneuzen, Netherlands.
Sandra E. 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 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. From 1999 to 2003, Roelofs was a visiting lecturer 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.
Roelofs acquired Georgian citizenship in January 2008 and is now a dual Dutch-Georgian citizen. Roelofs and Saakashvili have two sons, Eduard (b 1995) and Nikoloz (b 2005).
She is an author of an autobiographic book The Story of an Idealist (2005). The book is translated into Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Turkish and English language.
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.
In 2007 Mistress Roelofs founded Radio Muza, the first Georgian radio dedicated solely to classical music which functioned until 2014. She was serving at the Board of the Global Fund fighting Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria from 2012-2015.
Roelofs set up breast and cervical cancer screening programs in Georgia, as well as prenatal screening and promoted palliative care and awareness about rare diseases, safety belts and healthy lifestyle.