Mosquitoes are a deadly problem in Southeast Asia. In tropical homes, mosquitoes often lay eggs in stagnant pools of water that collect in overwatered plant pots at home. So the challenge was: how do you get rid of mosquitoes when their home is in every household? The Life Saving Pot is a CSR outreach programme by Manulife that aims to deny mosquitoes a place to breed at home, by bringing tradition and technology together.

Initially, Manulife only wanted to reach out to selected neighbourhoods in Singapore with the Life Saving Pot. But the overwhelming response from the launch led to a larger campaign that stretched across Southeast Asia.

Each Life Saving Pot is a marriage of tradition and technology coming together to solve an age-old problem.

First, we worked with one of the oldest surviving wood-fired kilns in Singapore to handmake clay pots. Thanks to the labour-intensive, ancient process, the shape and glaze of each resulting pot is unique.

Then, we worked with traditional ceramic artists to decorate each pot in paint containing a non-toxic insecticide that has been proven to repel up to 80% of mosquitoes. But each design has a hidden story: what simply appears to be traditional Ming-style designs from afar are revealed to be hundreds of dead mosquitoes on closer look.