If you see a man with one painted fingernail, this is what it means

Elliot Costello met a little girl named Thea while traveling across Cambodia with a group of other people.

Little did Elliot realise that this meeting would have such a significant effect on him that it would inspire him to launch a crusade to put an end to sexual abuse of minors.

Thea’s little nails were painted every single day. She once asked Elliot to paint one of his nails while they were conversing. He accepted and was delighted to talk to the chatty girl, but later found out that she had experienced sexual assault.

“As she painted one of my nails, I assured her I would always keep it that way to remember her, and by extension, her suffering,” Elliot said.

Elliot was inspired by this to work towards changing men’s attitudes in order to reduce the number of children who experience sexual abuse.

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At that point, he created the #PolishedMan movement, in which men paint one of their nails. That single nail stands in for the one in five children who will experience sexual assault.

Polished Man works towards ending sexual violence against children. According to the organization, “being a Polished Man means challenging violent behavior and language, both locally and globally.”

Since men are responsible for 96% of this kind of violence against children worldwide, according to Elliott, they should be the driving force behind reform if we are ever to put a stop to the abuse of defenceless children.

The painted nail is intended to spark discussion about the prevalence of child abuse and inspire fresh preventative strategies, not only to act as a visual reminder of the problem. Additionally, he wants people to start making donations to “support educational programmes and resources for child survivors of abuse,” according to APlus.

Related: This is the final photograph of Phillip Herron 34, crying in his car, literally minutes before taking his own life. He was a single Dad with three kids, struggling with crushing debt of over $20,000 and was desperately waiting for a Payday loan he’d applied for. But it was paid in arrears, with a 5 week wait time. That wait drove him even deeper into debt, and when he died he had $4.61 in his bank account and clearly couldn’t see any other way out.

We sincerely hope that more guys, even famous men, will agree to support this cause.