Haiti Projects: Days for Girls and Mango Community Family Farm

Ellen Schreder started her practice at Carson, Clelland & Schreder doing criminal prosecution and family law. As her family law practice grew, her time as a prosecutor decreased. Ellen soon became a partner, and the law firm has since been known as Carson, Clelland & Schreder. Ellen now practices solely in the field of family law, and works with all types of family law cases, including but not limited to dissolution, custody and parenting time, post-Decree issues and modifications, third party custody, grandparent visitation, adoptions, and step-parent adoptions. Ellen spends the majority of her time away from the office working on all aspects of the sewing program which she runs in Cap-Haitian, Haiti. She recently applied for and received a Rotary Global Grant to further this work in Haiti, where women from two different villages are employed sewing items needed by and purchased by the Haitian people. Ellen also enjoys bicycling and all things outdoors, including spending time at her cabin. She is a longtime member of the Brooklyn Center Rotary Club.

A Haitian native, Gymps Sunel was raised by his grandmother after losing his parents at the age of two. He was educated in Haiti, Martinique, the Dominican Republic, and later on in the United States. Gymps works for the State of Minnesota's Department of Health and Human Services as a Behavioral Analyst when he is not working on various projects in Haiti. After Covid-19 hit in 2020, Gymps saw an increase in the number of children and people, that were already living in poverty and hunger, plunged to a deeper level, not knowing where their next meal would come from. More than half of Haiti’s total population is chronically food insecure, and 22% of children are chronically malnourished. People don't have the food they need to live a healthy and productive life. Hunger affects the ability of children to learn, and perpetuates the cycle of poverty. It was this realization that led Gymps to find a parcel of land in his home country and the vision of Mango Community Family Farm was born. It is their hope that Mango Farm will provide a safe space for families to grow their own food and be able to provide a sustainable, living wage from the proceeds of sales at the market.

The couple operate Days for Girls and Mango Community Family Farm in northern Haiti, and for over 20 years, have worked to provide opportunities for Haitians to help themselves and their families.