Why did Mediassociates sponsor an entire village in Honduras with clean water?

The story of how a U.S. media agency began building water systems for entire villages in the mountains of Honduras began with a vacation about a decade ago—when Scott and Tracy Brunjes visited Myanmar, a poor nation in Southeast Asia.

“We were walking around with a guide and I saw people without clean water, living in grass huts,” Scott Brunjes recalls. “And then, we saw this schoolhouse…”

Like a beacon of hope, amid the dirt and poverty of a village, a bright, clean, building was filled with smiling teachers and children. Curious, Scott and Tracy inquired as to how this came to be. They learned a Canadian corporation had paid to have the school building built. And something clicked in their heads.

“Scott and I agreed we wanted to do something to move people’s baseline, something related to the fundamentals of life,” Tracy Brunjes says. “And water was the first idea.”

Thus began an 8-year evolving relationship between and World Vision—in which employees at the media agency adopt individual children abroad, and the company as a whole invests in building out water piping and sanitation systems across Honduras. The first “Village Project” began in Pueblo Viejo, Honduras, in 2017, and after a few disruptions due to Covid-19, a massive solar-powered pumping and sanitation system went live in 2020—bringing clean water to more than 250 people who live in the rural mountainside village. Mediassociates has expanded its partnership with World Vision to install clean water at another community, and each year sends teams of 6-8 employees down to Honduras to meet their new friends and check on progress.

Learn more about this project at www.mediassociatesvillageproject.com.