Hani Jamil Qaddumi was born in Jaffa, Palestine in 1925.  He moved to Jerusalem to complete his high school education at Al-Rashidiya College, and returned to Jaffa after graduation.  He worked for the Department of Immigration and Passports, managing the Passport Control Office in Gaza during the British Mandate in Palestine.    In 1948, Hani Qaddumi led the women and children of his family to Nablus during the bombing of Jaffa.  He was unable to return to Jaffa before it was captured, and like many Palestinians, waited months for a job to appear in another Arab country.   In late 1948, under the auspices of His Highness, the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak, the Crown Prince of Kuwait, he moved to head up Kuwait's new Department of Passports, Residency and Travel.

In 1962, Hani Qaddumi took over management of the Office of His Highness, the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem, the Amir of Kuwait in the Amiri Diwan and served as a member of various delegations, accompanying His Majesty on official visits, talks, and conferences.  When the late Ahmad Al-Shuqiri was appointed Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, he requested that Hani Qaddumi become a full-time member, but His Highness declined.  He believed that Hani Qaddumi could best serve the Palestinian cause, the cause of all Arabs, from his current position.

In 1965, Hani Qaddumi resigned from government work and initiated a private trading business..    In spite of his considerable success in the private sector, Hani Qaddumi is remembered most vividly for his philanthropy.  He was a firm believer in education as a key for success.  He was one of the co-founders of the Palestinian Fund for Higher Education and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Welfare Association, providing relief in both Palestine and the refugee camps in Lebanon.    Although Hani Qaddumi passed away a few days before the Millennium, it was his last wish that his efforts to promote education amongst the poor and disadvantaged continue.  In fulfillment of this desire, his wife Ghada and sons Nabil and Sa’ad created the Hani Qaddumi Scholarship Foundation (HQSF).

HQSF was created in 2001 as a not – for-profit foundation to assist young Palestinians in Palestine to achieve their educational goals and to contribute to the development of their country.  It offers students an equal opportunity to compete annually for a number of endowment grants in a range of specializations, with an emphasis on engineering and information technology for undergraduates at Palestinian universities and the American University of Beirut (AUB), as well as for graduates at USA, UK and Canadian universities in engineering, information technology, Masters in Business Administration, and Masters in Fine Arts.

The grants are offered on a rigorously competitive basis and are awarded to selected individuals on the basis of academic excellence, professional qualifications and financial need.