Writer and journalist Antonina Sârbu lost the battle with COVID-19. “It is a big loss for our press, culture and art. Writer, journalist, lover of beauty and promoter of art in our country, Antonina Sârbu, passed away. Frail in appearance, she knew to determinedly defend justice and had the generosity to always place others  at the forefront,” says an obituary signed by President Maia Sandu, which is quoted by IPN.

After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism of the State University of Moldova, Antonina Sârbu worked for many years for different publications in Moldova, including “Moldova Suverană“, “Capitala”, “Ziarul de Gardă“, and also for “Euro TV”. During several years, she managed the Women’s Program Department at Soros Foundation Moldova. She made her debut as a writer in 1984. She wrote a number of poetry and prose volumes, with her novel “The Silver Fox” published in 2018 being the most famous ones.

“Antonina Sârbu always knew to recognize the talent and to support the good. I admired her devotion and commitment in the promotion of the work of her husband and pair soul, painter Andrei Sîrbu, artist who contributed to renewing the plastic language in the Bessarabian area, a promoter of modernist emphases in painting,” said Maia Sandu.

Her friends and mates from Soros Foundation Moldova posted a message on Facebook, saying Antonina Sârbu was a great promoter of the activities aimed at improving the situation of women in Moldova. While forming part of the team of the Foundation, she worked to prevent breast cancer by training family doctors, to improve the efficiency of the dialogue, communication and cooperation between the women’s NGOs, to monitor and reduce the discriminatory attitude to women, to promote the dialogue on social equality and set down a clear set of journalistic standards of social equity between women and men.

On November 6 this year, Antonina Sârbu would have turned 65.