Our Team

F. worked as an interpreter for the British military for almost 7 years in the southern province of Helmand, Afghanistan. 

F. worked in many roles, and in particularly enjoyed working in CMIC (civilian and military cooperation), helping locals in isolated communities, for instance with setting up veterinary clinics, water-clearing projects, medical and dental clinics. In this role, F. was the main point of contact between British military and locals.  

As Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban on the 15th August 2021, F.  was very concerned  about his family and kids, knowing that the first thing the Taliban would do would be to locate the interpreters who had worked with foreign forces. In this chaotic situation, F. was supported by British colleagues to reach Kabul airport for evacuation. The saddest moment was not being able to allow his son to say goodbye to his classmate. F. is happy to have been resettled here and to work with the Sulha Alliance to draw on his own experiences to support other Afghan interpreters and LECs.

John is a former Royal Naval officer with a broad depth of experience within the business and charity sectors. He joined the Royal Navy aged 17 as a Junior Naval Airman and left some 38 years later as a Lieutenant Commander. During his time in the navy, he was involved in operations in the Falklands immediately after the war in 1982 and later in support of maritime operations in the Gulf in 2002/3. Of note, he was the Commanding Officer of HMS Victory for two and a half years.

John left the Royal Navy in 2014 and joined his wife Kerry in their family business.

Having spent over 40 years working voluntarily and part time in the charity sector, John brings a wealth of experience to the Sulha Alliance. He is currently also Vice-Chair and a working volunteer for a Hampshire based veterans charity, a guest speaker for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, President of the Royal Naval Safety Equipment and Survival Association and Lead Patron of a Hampshire based MS charity.

Sulha Alliance Co-founder Ed spent 8 years as an Army Officer and served on two tours of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His Afghan interpreter from his first tour was one of the lucky few who was allowed to relocate to the UK. Realising the lack of support the resettled interpreters were given, Ed teamed up with his old interpreter and set up the Sulha Network in 2016. This became a widely used support group and doubled as a lobbying platform to campaign for better treatment of the Afghan interpreters resettled in the UK. Ed has now combined his experience of working with the Afghan interpreter community in the UK with the broader goals of the Sulha Alliance.  

Sulha Alliance Co-founder Sara is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of York. For her ongoing research into the claims to protection and rights by Afghan and Iraqi military interpreters and other Locally Employed Civilians, she has interviewed former interpreters and advocates, including veterans, lawyers and civil society actors in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands. She provided oral evidence to the HoC Defence Select Committee and spoke at the Roundtable “Protect Translators and Interpreters, Protect the World” at the United Nations HQ in NYC. She also organised meetings to bring national and international advocates, stakeholders and interpreters together.

Sulha Alliance Co-founder Peter has been advocating for former interpreters since 2017. He is an ex-Army Officer who deployed to Afghanistan's Helmand Province for a 6 month tour of duty in 2011, where he built strong working relationships with several interpreters. Peter spent 4 years in the army, reaching the rank of Captain, before moving into the corporate security sector. He became an advocate  when he discovered that an interpreter who he had worked with was facing rejection of his asylum case and at risk of deportation. After leading a successful campaign, Peter became involved in the wider issue of the treatment of former interpreters with the Sulha Alliance.

Ed Monckton spent eight years as an Army Officer including tours of Helmand, Afghanistan and Ukraine, both of which worked shoulder to shoulder with interpreters enabling every interaction. 

On leaving the Army he joined the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office where he was in the crisis centre during the fall of Kabul and Op PITTING. This experience and his relationship with his own interpreters from Afghanistan – whose families remain stuck in Afghanistan – led him to join the Sulha Alliance team in 2022.