The Welcome Directory

Peter Holloway

Peter has a heart to help the vulnerable and has recently retired as the CEO of Prison Fellowship where he led the organisation’s 2,800 volunteers who support those who are held in the 124 prisons across England and Wales.

Initially qualifying as an aircraft engineer, Peter then retrained and built his career in HR, change management and organisation development. As Head of People Delivery, he established and led BA’s first HR Shared Service Centre, delivering operational HR services to the 40,000 strong BA team. In 2010 Peter moved to Switzerland and joined the international humanitarian agency Medair, and as their Group HR Director jointly led the organisation through significant growth and change as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.

Peter is married with two adult children and is interested in how organisations really work and how faith can play a positive role in society

Rizwana Reza

Rizwana Reza has been Managing Chaplain at HMP and YOI Brinsford since October 2016. Starting in 2004 as Sessional Muslim Chaplain at HMP/YOI Drake Hall she went on to become Managing Chaplain there in 2013.

Having graduated from University of Manchester with a BA(HONS) in Middle Eastern Studies, Rizwana then went on to do a PGCE in Primary Education and then the Certificate in Training of Muslim Chaplains. She grew up in Ireland and Zambia as a child and then in the UK. Rizwana has been a Committee member of her local Interfaith Group and is an Executive member of the Muslim Chaplains Association, joining The Welcome Directory as a trustee in the autumn of 2020.

Rizwana is married with three children. She has travelled widelyand is passionate about different cultures and faiths living together in peace and harmony.

shaffiq din

Shaffiq Din is Director of Operations at the Al-Emaan Centre in Bromley, a charity and religious centre.

For nearly twenty years prior to his current post, Shaffiq was a Muslim chaplain working with HM Prison and Probation Service. He has a wealth of experience working within and alongside both Muslim and indigenous communities. He offers consultancy and training to organisations who would like to better engage with Muslim clients, staff, families and societies. Previously Shaffiq has worked within the Pharmaceutical and Financial Services sectors and has a business/IT senior management background.

bob wilson

Bob Wilson is the Free Churches Faith Advisor to the Prison and Probation service in England and Wales, Chair of Prisons Week and ex-officio trustee of The Welcome Directory. He is an ordained Baptist minister and Prison Chaplain, involved in training of Chaplains in a wider sense as an adjunct lecturer of Chester University.

When not in prison you may well find him in the mountains pursuing his other passion of rock climbing. Unusually for a prison chaplain, Bob is a qualified Mountain Leader and Rock Climbing Instructor!

DUPE ADEFALA

Dupe Adefala is currently the Managing Chaplain at a Cat B Local Prison and holds the Free Churches Group Licence. She is the Senior Pastor at Word Fountain Christian Ministries (WFCM), a registered faith based charity situated in Oxford and Swindon. Dupe is a member of International Ministers Fellowship (IMF) in the UK and served as the 3rd National President (2014 - 2021). She is currently assigned to lead the Global Next Generation Directorate with her husband.

Dupe is married and blessed with 4 adult children, including one daughter-in-law. She is passionate about building strategic links between statutory agencies; faith communities and charitable organisations towards providing joined up support to prisoners, prison leavers and other vulnerable groups.

Eric Southwick

Eric Southwick is non-stipendiary Minister and a Chartered Accountant working with both commercial and charitable clients. He enjoys helping people professionally and personally. Professionally he advises both religious and secular charities across the country, including some small national charities, providing them with a range of services to support them in fulfilling their objectives. Eric serves his local church and churches further afield as a minister, speaking and leading groups and services for them. In addition to fulfilling his ministry Eric has many years’ experience of serving as a trustee with a variety of charities and as a governor of a number of schools.

Fred Ireland

Fred Ireland was born in Leicester and has been a Methodist minister since 1980 and has looked after churches in Nottingham, Sudbury (in Suffolk), Aylesbury and Thame. He currently has pastoral care of the churches in Bampton, Burford, Faringdon, Minster Lovell and Westcot in Oxfordshire. He also shares ministry at Long Hanborough Methodist Church with the Revd. Charles Harris. He is the Free Church Prison Chaplain at HMYOI Aylesbury, a role he has had there for 25 years. Previously he was Chaplain at HMP Highpoint and The Mount. Fred has served as a Prison Chaplain since 1988.

Fred is married to Susan and have three married children and seven grandchildren. His hobbies include photography and cooking and he enjoys watching golf, cricket and the ups and downs of Leicester City Football Club.

EDWARD SMYTH

Edward has been involved in the criminal justice sector for ten years and is currently the Head of Fundraising & Philanthropy at the Prison Reform Trust. As well as being a trustee of The Welcome Directory he is a published editor and writer on issues of criminal justice (especially as they intersect with faith) and the Chair of Sing Inside, a small charity which delivers singing workshops in prisons. Before joining the Prison Reform Trust Edward spent a number of years in the Business Development team at The Forward Trust. He holds an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Oxford and an MA in Theology from Durham; and he spent 18 weeks in prison in 2015.

AJMER SINGH

Ajmer Singh is the Sikh Faith Advisor to the Prison and probation Service in England and Wales and an ex trustee for the Fresh Start New Beginning charity at HMP Shrewsbury. Ajmer Singh started work as a sessional Sikh Chaplain in 1998 at HMP Shrewsbury, and in 2006 took a Regional Sikh Faith Advisor role and finally became Sikh Faith Advisor in 2015. Ajmer Singh works in four prisons in the Midlands and is well known amongst the Sikh Community in East and West Midlands.

Ajmer Singh graduated from Guru Nanak University, Amritsar, Punjab, India and speaks five languages.