Tacloban native featured in Rupert Jacinto’s ‘fabulous' exhibit

TACLOBAN CITY, Nov. 30 (PNA) –- This year’s photo exhibit of world-renowned photographer Rupert Jacinto dubbed as "Faaabvlous VII" at the Gallery of the Peninsula Manila features one of this city’s beautiful women.

Minerva Mondejar-Steiner, 37, from Tacloban City, is a gallerist and a philanthropist. She studied Art History at Oxford University and Fashion Styling at Central St. Martins in London. She regularly travels between Tacloban City and Zurich, Switzerland, her second home.

She was one of the 15 Faaabvlous Women presented during the opening of the photo exhibit and a coffee-table book launch last weekend. The exhibit runs from Nov. 24 to Dec. 6, 2016

Guests of honor at the exhibit were the Faaabvlous Icons of 2016 – Betsy Westendorp de Brias, Monaco Consul General Fortune Ledesma, Guatemala Consul Mellie Ablaza and Angola Consul Helen Ong together with male icon of 2016 Ramon Orlina.

Jacinto annually tapped beautiful and fabulous people with elan, style and substance.

Mondejar-Steiner opened the Mondejar Gallery at the heart of Zurich, Switzerland in 2007, showcasing Philippine contemporary art.

She will put up the Rupert Jacinto’s 1st Fabulous Icons 2017 at her Mondejar Gallery in Zurich early next year, featuring Swiss expats in the Philippines and Filipino expats in Switzerland. The proceeds will be for another cause here in Tacloban City.

There was a black and tie Faaabvlous Ball followed in support of the Love A Parish program of the Sto. Niño de Paz chapel in Greenbelt, Makati City under its chaplain Rev. Fr. Jun Sescon.

The program aids more than 400 needy churches across the country including those destroyed during supertyphoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013.

Mondejar-Steiner’s humanitarian spirit led her to establish the M. Mondejar Steiner Foundation and provided immediate relief to Taclobanon residents after super typhoon Yolanda swept the area three years ago.

Her charity organization helped rebuild the damaged facilities of JE Mondejar Computer College and provided scholarships to support students’ uninterrupted education and the school faculty members.

In the aftermath of the typhoon, she invited kids in the neighborhood at Naga-Naga village, Tacloban City, numbering almost a hundred and enrolled them in the school’s day care learning center, 

providing them free meals and psychosocial therapy.

Her interest to promote cultural exchange led her to produce children’s cooking shows on cuisines from around the world. Other endeavors include the art-space and cinema club featuring independent films at Once-Upon-a-Time in Boracay.

She was crowned Miss An Maglipayon in 2007 – a charity ball in Tacloban City. She is the daughter of power couple Rene Bing Mondejar and Lucita Dublas and sister to Bernadette Schuelter who was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women 2016 by the Female Women’s Net.

Mondejar-Steiner is married to acclaimed Swiss movie director Michael Steiner and a mother to TvC models Dean and Jane.

The “Faaabvlous Fifteen Women of 2016” aside from Minerva Mondejar Steiner are Riza Asa, Yoli Ayson, Cathy Binag, Dr. Risa Caldoza, Gela Cornelissen, Crystal Jacinto, Michelle Lee, Vina Lelim Nacionales, Cory Navarro, Manila Rep. Sandy Ocampo, Margarita Palacios, Katrina Ponce-Enrile, Dr. Kaycee Reyes, and Shilpa Tolani.(PNA)
LAP/SQM/VICKY C. ARNAIZ/EGR