Men all over the world are taking part in a campaign to tackle domestic violence towards children, by painting one nail on one hand to represent the one in five children who have been abused.
The Polished Man campaign is trying to raise awareness of the domestic violence that affects 20% of children under the age of 18, with people donating money to YGAP, the Australian-based non profit charity to help victims.
The CEO of YGAP, Elliot Costello, was moved by Thea, a young girl from Cambodia who had been taken from an abusive home by Hagar International, a non-profit organisation that tries to empower at-risk women and children.
Before saying goodbye to Elliot, Thea painted his fingernails, which struck him and led him to always paint one nail in honour of her. Without even knowing the one in five statistic, he created the Polished Man campaign, where men paint one nail during the month of October to represent the proportion of children who suffer abuse before they turn 18.
Men everywhere are taking to social media to share images of their painted nails, including celebrities like Chris Hemsworth and Tyler Blackburn from Pretty Little Liars, who are also tuning in to raise awareness for the campaign.
Men set their own fundraising goals, the money of which will go towards creating trauma recovery and prevention programs in organisations such as the New York Center for Children and World Vision. The fact that men are painting their nails is especially poignant, as statistically 90% of sexual violence towards children is committed by men.
Thousands of men have joined in on the campaign using #polishedman, with the ladies in their lives promoting their participation by captioning photos of them with 'I prefer a #polishedman'.
Women are also joining in and painting one nail on each hand in support.
So far the charity has raised $347,765 and counting. What a great cause!
