2009 News Releases

Hong Kong - The Manulife Centre for Children with Specific Learning Disabilities (MCCSLD) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and it marked the milestone with a fun-filled three-day Summer Camp themed “Realising Potential — 10 Years of Growth”.

Manulife’s Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong, Michael Huddart said: “Some 10-15 per cent of Hong Kong’s school population suffers from specific learning disabilities in reading and writing, and the Centre is doing a magnificent job in helping the community to identify, understand and encourage these disadvantaged youngsters to fulfill their potential.”

Dr. Alice Cheng Lai, the Person-in-Charge of MCCSLD, thanked Manulife for its support over the last decade, that has enabled the Centre to hold more than 300 seminars and workshops for some 5,000 students and parents, as well as to publish books and over 100 academic papers designed to help families and school-teachers know more about the problems of learning disabilities and how to overcome them.

“We have grown with the Hong Kong people in facing the challenge of how to deal with this widespread affliction, which includes dyslexia and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders,” she said. “With Manulife’s help, we feel we are really making headway in terms of allowing our children to develop to their full capacity.”

During the last 10 years, MCCSLD has shifted its focus from increasing Hong Kong people’s understanding and awareness of students with learning disabilities to assessing the strengths of such children and implementing treatment strategies.

Increasingly, the research aspect of the Centre’s work is having an international impact. Its pioneering investigations into the causes and sub types of learning disorders and how to treat them have become benchmarks in the field, and the aim going forward is to give as much attention to theory as to practice.

An example of the MCCSLD’s growing global authority was the establishment of a “Joint Polytechnic University-Peking University Centre for Child Development and Learning” in Beijing in 2008, which is designed to facilitate better coordination for the two institutions’ numerous joint endeavours in this sphere, specifically in the Chinese-language context.

Themed “Realising Potential — 10 Years of Growth”, this year’s annual Summer Camp was held at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with some 60 children participating. The children expressed the theme in drawings and paintings, which were displayed at an exhibition and presented to a visiting Manulife management team, headed by Mr. Huddart.

About Manulife Charitable Foundation
The Manulife Charitable Foundation is a non-profit organization set up by Manulife (International) Limited in 1998 to support and promote educational, health and charitable activities for the betterment of public welfare in Hong Kong. It has sponsored the Manulife Centre for Children with Specific Learning Disabilities at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University since 1999 with a mandate to assist children with specific learning difficulties, and their parents and teachers, by studying how to identify children in need of assistance and help them develop to their full potential.

About Manulife (International) Limited
Manulife (International) Limited is a member of the Manulife Financial group of companies. Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 22 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily through John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$421 billion (approximately HK$ 2,805.7 billion) as at June 30, 2009.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as ‘MFC’ on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under ‘945’ on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

- 30 -

Media Contact:
Lily Chan
Manulife (International) Limited
Tel: (852) 2202 1284
Fax: (852) 2234 6875
E-mail: lily_wk_chan@manulife.com