Nail it to end it
Men all over the world have united in a single cause – to help raise awareness about child abuse. By weekly painting one finger nail of their choice in any color they prefer, they are standing up for one in five children becoming victims to sexual abuse. The campaign quickly spread outside Australia where it initially started showing men everywhere displaying their willingness to make a change, and some great fashion sense too.
The inspiration
Aside from presenting one in five children falling victim to abuse, there is another meaningful symbolism behind painting a finger nail. It started when Elliot Costello went to Cambodia as a part of Hagar International project for helping poverty-stricken regions. There he met a girl named Thea whom he soon became friends with. During one of their conversations, as she was painting his nails, he learned that she was victim of sexual abuse on daily basis while living in an orphanage. That was the moment that he decided to try to make a stop to this global issue. Inspired by her story and her favorite activity, he designed the campaign aimed to raise awareness and funds, provide recovery and care for victims, and ultimately, prevent child abuse.
Polished up men
The Polished Man Project is focused toward aspiring men to polish up as great role models, great fathers, brothers and friends in order to build a better world where not a single child suffers abuse. As a slogan on The Polished Man website reads, it “challenges men to nail it to end it.” By taking action, men are re-writing the abuser role they most often have in cases of sexual assaults, and instead of perpetuating the horror by ignoring it, they are standing up for and giving voice to the quieted.
Even though the campaign depicts only men, women are encouraged by the Polished Man Project to join men by supporting and praising them as “positive masculinity” role-models with a hashtag #ipreferapolishedman. According to the Polished Man Report for 2015, the movement helped raise $261,933.00 in USA only, making it a 60% fundraising growth on 2014. By reaching more people each painted fingernail at a time, the movement could soon reach its goal of becoming global and providing each child with safe and violent-free childhood.
