The project was started in 2008 by Melissa Villa and her daughter Francesca to help a deaf and mute friend Luz who was living in the slums with two daughters by sending her daughters to school. Two years after, they saw pictures online of the community of Ulingan posted by Belgian journalist Sidney Snoeck . The pictures of the children covered in soot and dirt touched Melissa and she knew she had to help those children.

In August 2010, they gathered volunteers and set up in Ulingan (Filipino word for "charcoal factory") located in a reclaimed area near Manila North Harbor. The residents main livelihood was charcoal production which brought poverty and pollution to the community. The community of mostly women and children lived with the heat, fumes, dust, and stench and worked for a miniscule income of about 100 pesos (2 US dollars) per day.

Their living and working conditions were extremely unsanitary and should be uninhabitable but through some miracle and with great hardship they survived in that place.

Fortunately in 2013, the National Housing Authority relocated the families in Ulingan to a newly created area in Brgy. Batia, Bocaue, Bulacan. The children can now live in a safe and smoke-free environment and up to this day Project PEARLS still supports the families through outreach activities each month and scholarships for the children.

Project Pearls aims to provide nutrition, education, healthcare, and empowerment to poor children. The name PEARLS stands for what they strive to give these children: Peace, Education, Aspiration, Respect, Love, and Smiles