Ellen McCurley and Suzi Peel founded the Pendulum Project in the spring of 2001 after meeting at a Kennedy School of Government panel series focused on the AIDS crisis in Africa. They formed The Pendulum Project because of their common experience working on the ground in Africa where they saw a lack of adequate support for grassroots organizations, which are the majority in leading the efforts of response to the AIDS pandemic. They saw a real need for a model of effective response directed at community-based programs working on the front lines to support children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. These many grass roots organizations are committed to providing food, counseling, and educational support for hundreds and thousands of children but do not have access to funding by the larger international non-governmental agencies. The programs that we support and partner with are directed and sustained by a committed base of volunteers and local community support. With the ever-rising number of children left behind without parents and the socio-economic toll of the pandemic, these groups continue to have a need for more resources and funding.