A plethora of male celebrities from Wasim Akram to Humayun Saeed have shared pictures of themselves with one nail polished a different colour prompting fans and followers to question the reason behind this.
Shaniera Akram, who spearheaded the movement in Pakistan, has explained that ‘The Polished Man’ aims to raise awareness about child abuse. Posting photos of some of most prominent faces in Pakistan, Shaniera wrote: “Some of the toughest men Pakistan has ever produced are showing their softer side and coloring one nail to represent the millions of children who suffer every day at the hand of an adult. Our Pakistani heroes say ‘We WILL NOT tolerate child abuse in our country’.”
She further explained that though the ‘Polished Man’ campaign has been around for years, 2020 has witnessed the highest level of child abuse in Pakistan.
Shaniera also encouraged men to start participating in the campaign.
WHAT IS POLISHED MAN?
YGAP is a foundation that started in 2008 by a team of young and enthusiastic volunteers and has since matured into a high impact international organisation driven by its work. They support local entrepreneurs who have shown the drive, talent and conviction to create change in their own communities through social impact ventures. They have started raising money for child abuse as one billion children have experienced violence in the last year alone – that’s half the world’s children. They’ve raised $ 530,743 donations so far and are still counting.
WHY NAIL POLISH?
YGAP’s cofounder Elliot Costello came up with the idea for Polished Man after a visit to campaign beneficiary Hagar International in Cambodia. One evening, he met a young girl named Thea, who drew a heart on Elliot’s palm, and then painted all of his nails blue.
Later, Elliot learnt how Thea came to be in Hagar’s care – she was physically and sexually assaulted for two years by her orphanage’s director. Elliot made the decision then and there to paint one nail to remember Thea. When he later learned of the extent of child violence, the Polished Man movement was born.
