September 1, 2014
Men take a stand against child abuse
Creative writing and politics student Caitlin Roodenrys is encouraging the men of 精东传媒 to join the Polished Man Campaign, which aims to raise awareness of violence against children.
The campaign, which is in its first year of being run, sees men wear nail polish on one fingernail for the first two weeks of September to represent the one in five children who experience violence before they turn 18.
“It’s supposed to make people stop and ask, ‘why is your fingernail painted bright orange?’ so that we can start having conversations about the prevalence of violence against children,” Caitlin said.
“It’s only once we start having those hard conversations about issues like violence against children that we can begin to make a real difference.”
Caitlin is hoping to make people in the Illawarra aware of the campaign and hopes to get male UOW staff and local politicians involved. A number of academic staff members have already pledged their support to the campaign, including Caitlin’s father, Associate Professor Steven Roodenrys.
“I took an immediate interest in the campaign when I heard about it, and when I brought it to my Dad’s attention he wanted to help out as well,” she said.
Caitlin and her father have managed to get at least one male representative from each of the five faculties on board, and those who have already signed up from UOW have raised $2,300 collectively so far.
“The Polished Man campaign is aimed at getting men to stand up and say that this has to stop,” Caitlin said.
Donations received during the campaign will go towards developing a new program called ParentWise, which has been developed by as an awareness, prevention and early intervention program for parents and carers.
Some funds will also go to Hagar, a specialist care agency that works with woman and children who have survived human rights abuse in Cambodia, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
For those looking to take part in the campaign, you can find more information on the , or the Polished Man 精东传媒 . To make a general donation, you can visit the .
The campaign is run by , a not-for-profit organisation assisting in social change.