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No matter how much children (and other people) understand about the importance of hand washing, what they do when nobody is looking is another matter. I had a classic case when evaluating a DfID WASH project recently when inspecting a rehabilitated school toilet block together with a group of teachers and project staff. A small boy came out of the toilet cubicle and headed for the door. It was quite comical the way he stopped and turned to head for the basins when he saw us all there. He clearly understood that it was something he should do but was only practicing it when he thought that he would be caught out! The only reliable way I found to check whether hand washing facilities were being used was to check if the basins and soap were wet. If the school childrenb are doing the monitoring it is probably that they should use as an indicator rather than what the other children say about their behaviours.