LCFWMPC is a multi-purpose cooperative established in January 2002 and is duly registered with the Cooperative Development Authority. Its membership includes 134 farm workers and small farmers. They come from several haciendas in the Municipality of La Castellana. The cooperative aims to establish a municipal-wide coop among farm workers and small farmers and strengthen their level of cooperation through a workers-owned and workers-managed cooperative. They also aim to have access and control to local resources, means of production and market, develop the economic potentials of farm workers and small farmers, promote ecological balance through the practice of organic farming toward sustainable agriculture, establish linkage with other workers cooperatives here and abroad, assist farm workers and small farmers, find some alternatives for additional family income especially during the lean months and develop an independent workers enterprise. Currently, the cooperative has 11 hectares planted with peanuts and 75 hectares planted with sugarcane under its management. 

The Free Email Center in La Castellana is the second such set-up in the Visayas and the ninth project established in the whole Philippines. The project was launched June 11, 2002 attended by 100 cooperative members headed by the coop chairperson Nenita Parafina. Guests included La Castellana Mayor Enrico Elumba, Councilors Leonardo Bacquian and Patricio Estoya, Municipal Agricultural Officer Mila Andrada, PHDF Board Member Noel Morales and other PHDF staff including Project Coordinator Pinky Castelo-Cupino, Field Coordinator Iris Sabordo and Computer Specialist Richard Perez.

La Castellana Mayor Enrico Elumba speaks before La Castellana
residents during the Free Email Project launching.



President of the Castellana Farmworkers' Multipurpose Cooperative
Nenita Parafina and PHDF Board Member Noel Morales signs the
Memorandum of Agreement.



Farmworkers-members of the La Castellana Farmworkers' Multipurpose
Cooperative join in the launching of the Free Email Connectivity Project.



Computer technician Richard Perez trains three network administrators
in the Free Email Connectivity Project in La Castellana, Negros Occidental.

La Castellana residents train in the use of the computers and the
free email system.