This parent is holding up his hand to demonstrate that he is a part of the Clean Hand Movement to fight corruption in Cambodia. Corruption often hits the poor the hardest. Demands for bribes keep them away from clinics, where care is supposed to be free... and their children from school, even though education is mandated under the law to be affordable.

Until last year many of the poor had to spend a large part of their income for informal "fees" that went to the children's teachers, whom the state does not pay a living wage. The belief, at the time, was that teachers used these "fees" to buy school supplies. If the parents didn't pay, the children were picked on by the teachers. Bad grades, even on key exams, would be given no matter how well the students did. Parents just paid teachers the "fees" because they did not know not to.

Under Pact's Anti-Corruption project, (known as the Anti-Corruption Coordinated Action Program at the time and now known as the Mainstreaming Anti-corruption for Equity Program), Pact gave a grant to a local NGO called People for Peace and Development Center (PDP) for a project called "Clean Youth for Clean Society." The project focused on curbing corruption and irregularities at 60 schools across four provinces in the country. The main activity was increasing awareness among parents and teachers—awareness about the illegality of asking for bribes and monitoring of school funds that were supposed to be available to support student education.

Sometime after the project started—and its monitoring activities still continue post funding—parents noticed that demand for bribes from teachers stopped. Children now are doing well with their schooling, and parents have more money every month to pay for essentials.

Teachers also now know that parents are aware that what they were asking for—daily bribes—is corruption and are ashamed to ask for payments. PDP bolstered its anti-corruption campaign by distribution of Pact's Clean Hands materials, which urge working together to fight corruption. Clean Hands stickers and posters are everywhere.

Under the MAE program, increasing awareness about the impact of corruption on daily life continues. Pact is introducing social accountability tools to help communities monitor public funds. We work with the private sector to engage them in the fight against corruption. We train investigative journalists in cooperation with our partner, Internews. We work with groups like Oxfam America to help prevent the "resource curse" taking hold in Cambodia following recent discoveries of oil deposits. Wherever possible, in addition to partnering with civil society, we work closely with the government. Most recently Pact provided expertise to write a freedom of information policy paper submitted to the Royal Government of Cambodia. All of these efforts are designed to tackle the corruption problems experienced by people on a day-to-day basis.