When Maria Elena Manzo (upper left photo), an asthma educator from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, first discovered that children of Monterey County undocumented were unable to qualify for free life-saving asthma inhalers -- and that those in Santa Cruz county did -- she immediately reached out to COPA-IAF. She and other COPA leaders organized hundreds of conversations over the next few years to build the political will, first for a $500,000 county-funded pilot project providing basic healthcare services to undocumented families, and now for Esperanza Care.

COPA leaders' impassioned case for county funding of health services for uninsured, undocumented children appeared not to fall on deaf ears at a meeting of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. The County Health Department director followed up with a request that the Board budget $500 thousand for a pilot project to make low-price prescription drugs and other specialty services available such children.