October is Polished Man month. Starting October 1, you will (hopefully) see many a man dressed normally, hair as it always is, but one with one subtle difference: A streak of blue nail polish on one finger.
The Bachelorette’s Georgia Love and her partner Lee Elliott are both involved, with Elliott posting an image to Instagram yesterday announcing: “I am proud to be a Polished Man.”
In the photograph, both he and Love are wearing blue on their third fingernails all in the name of protecting children from domestic violence.
The movement started with a man called Elliot Costello who visited Cambodia and met a little girl called Thea, who’d been sent to an orphanage at eight after her father died.
After that, Thea had been physically and sexually assaulted every day for two years by the man who was charged with her care.
Costello and Thea spent time playing games and “bonding over naughts and crosses”, as it explains on the Polished Man website. When it was time for Costello to leave, Thea grabbed his hand, drew a love heart on his palm and painted his fingernails blue.
When Costello learnt Thea’s full story, he vowed to always paint one nail blue to remember her.
When he learnt that one child dies every five minutes as a result of violence, Costello turned his nail polish ‘reminder’ into something bigger.
Now teams of people can request a Polished Man starter pack; begin fundraising; and help raise awareness and funds to protect children in violent situations. (Though Polished Man is targeting men – the most common perpetrators of domestic violence – women are welcome, too.)
All funds raised are sent to help in trauma recovery and prevention services.
Mia Freedman on why it is never okay to smack children. Post continues below.
“This October I challenge men (and women) to paint one fingernail Polished Man Blue to represent the one child that dies every five minutes as a result of violence,” The Bachelorette’s Elliott posted to Instagram.
“That nail starts a conversation. A conversation that inspires a donation. A donation that allows for prevention and protection. And it ends when no child suffers from violence.”
To find out more about Polished Man, click here.