The organization’s mission is to cooperate with all sectors to feed and sustain underprivileged citizens through the provision of Food for Life, while guiding them towards long-term self-sustaining solutions for an empowered and dignified existence.
Originally conceptualized by the Late Queen Alia, the Tkiyet is inspired by the Islamic concept of providing food for the poor. Dating back to the 11th century, the concept of a tkiyet started off in mosques with the purpose of providing food and shelter for Sufi mystics who devoted themselves to the contemplation of God. Over the centuries, the concept came to be more widely implemented with some of the most prominent families in the Arab and Ottoman world maintaining tkiyets. These served to underline the importance of extending charity to the needy. Tkiyets also served as shelters to feed the hungry and by passers.
Through initiating and building Tkiyet Um Ali, HRH Princess Haya revives the name and legend of her mother, as well as the beliefs and efforts the late queen epitomized prior to her loss in 1977 as she flew to the rescue those who had turned to her for help. The Tkiyet brings the traditions of social cohesion back to life in the spirit of Queen Alia’s ever-extended hand to less privileged sectors of the Jordanian population.
HRH Princess Haya began developing this project in 2002, and work was soon initiated in the name of Tkiyet Um Ali. Charitable programs such as the distribution of meals were undertaken throughout 2003, particularly during the Holy month of Ramadan. The Tkiyet building was completed by 2004, and its programs were officially launched in November 2005. Tkiyet’s four main programs include its internal meal program that provides 350 - 450 daily meals for the poor at its premises, its family sponsorship program which provides monthly food packages across the kingdom enough to feed each family for an entire month and the school feeding program that ensures a daily nutritive meal to children in rural schools. Tkiyet’s fourth program ensures the training and employment of members of its beneficiary families in order to empower them with long-term self sustaining means to support themselves and their families.
The Tkiyet stands in the heart of the less privileged area in Amman, on a land that was donated by the Greater Municipality of Amman in respect for this tradition, and in the name of HM Late Queen Alia. The choice of the location was made in order to serve the people of these areas, as well as to symbolize and demonstrate the integral social commitment to the country’s poor and hungry.
Today Tkiyet Um Ali provides a ray of hope to thousands of Jordan’s deprived. As the first initiative of its kind in Jordan and the region, the organization seeks to serve as a model for hunger and relief initiatives across the rest of the Arab world.