In Memoriam
Helen Holder

Six years ago, a delicate, almost fragile young lady sat next to me at one of those boring Brussels conferences. “Hi I am Helen, the new GMO campaigner at Friends of the Earth”, she said and I remember recalling Bob Dylan’s “What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?”

I soon was to learn: Raising hell, making companies and politicians sweat, always working just a little bit harder, and keeping the strangest alliances of activists and officials on track. Sharp, intrepid and yet always with that smile you simply could not resist. And sometimes, not too often, she would reward you with a bell clear laughter.

Helen Holder was a modern, dedicated leader, unspectacular but highly effective. All of us, who are involved in the fight against genetically engineered food and agriculture, owe her a lot. Things could have turned out differently more than once without Helen’s sense for timing, without her continuity as a watchdog and without her sharp and brilliant mind and soft spoken, hard hitting mobilizing power. She had style, she had passion, she was a lady. And she certainly was a die-hard.

When she dropped me an email asking if I could think of someone to replace her in Brussels for a while, I had no idea whom to recommend. Nor did I imagine that this would have been the last mail to receive from Helen. Today we hear with great sorrow that Helen passed away after a brave long fight against cancer, peacefully, surrounded by her loved ones. We’ll remember her laughing and we cry.
Benny Haerlin

Helen Holder, 16th December 1972 - 28th August 2011