Wendy de Berger | |
Office: | First Lady of Guatemala |
Term Start: | 14 January 2004 |
Term End: | 14 January 2008 |
Term Label: | In role |
Predecessor: | Evelyn Morataya |
Successor: | Sandra Torres |
Birth Date: | 11 August 1946 |
Birth Place: | Guatemala City |
Nationality: | Guatemala |
Party: | Grand National Alliance |
Spouse: | Óscar Berger |
Alma Mater: | University of San Carlos |
Occupation: | Psychologist |
Margarita Wendy Widmann Lagarde de Berger (born 11 August 1946) is a Guatemalan psychologist who served as the first lady of Guatemala from 2004 to 2008 as the wife of President Óscar Berger. She studied sociology at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Wendy de Berger was born on 11 August 1946 in Guatemala City, Guatemala Department, the fifth of six children born to Walter Widmann and Carlota Lagarde. She completed her primary and secondary studies at Colegio Monte María. In 1967, she married Óscar Berger and had five children: Oscar, Denise, Juan Esteban, Francisco, and Wendy Berger Widmann. Her interest in the humanities led her to study sociology at Trinity Washington University in the District of Columbia, capital of the United States.[1]
In 1991, Óscar Berger became the Metropolitan Mayor of Guatemala City. Wendy de Berger took charge of the city's social affairs, beginning several projects to help vulnerable groups like women and children. She promoted the construction of low-rent housing, founded a school for children to continue their education from kindergarten, and provided nursery programs for impoverished families. In 1996, de Berger began collaborating with the program Eduquemos a la Niña, designed to help educate troubled adolescents and teenagers and offer them scholarships. During Oscar Berger's presidential campaign in 2003, she developed and embarked on the "National Plan of Women's Crusades."[1]
On 14 January 2004, when Óscar Berger assumed the Presidency of Guatemala, Wendy took control of the Secretariat of Social Works of the Wife of the President of the Republic of Guatemala (SOSEP).[2] Wendy has also collaborated with Dallas-based charity organization Helps International to provide safe, sanitary stoves to poor Guatemalan women who participated in community projects such as in Santo Domingo Xenacoj, where a new bakery was opened with provided stoves.[3]