Former U.S. President Bill Clinton attended a private dinner reception held by the non-profit organization, Stree: Global Investments in Women, at a Los Altos Hills home Sunday night.
The event was organized to launch Stree’s new initiative “End Violence Against Women and Girls” to benefit the Support Network for Battered Women in Mountain View.
Jerry Brown, Oakland mayor and former California governor, and Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, also attended the dinner, preceded by an auction and cocktails.
Hollywood guests included actors John Cusack; Paul Hipp, “Face/off” and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil;” and John McGinley, who plays Dr. Perry Cox in NBC’s sitcom “Scrubs.”
Clinton, a friend of Stree’s founder, Malini Alles, said he came to the event because he “grew up in a home with a lot of domestic violence. I’m here because now that I’m not in office, I can say whatever I please,” Clinton said.
He then explained that due to tax cuts, the economy and current government leadership, it is up to philanthropists to make up for the breach created by the elimination of programs for the most vulnerable people in America, particularly children.
“We have to step into the breach,” said Clinton. “We owe it to ourselves, to our children, and to this country.”
Alles, who also spoke at the event, cited that one in six women worldwide is a victim of domestic violence and that nationally the number of women murdered by their intimate partners in the past 30 years is greater than the number of soldiers who died in the Vietnam War.
“Let me put a face to these statistics – my face,” she said. “I am a survivor of domestic violence … For this reason I fight battles to improve rights for women.”
Stree, a Palo Alto-based organization, is partnering with the Support Network for Battered Women on the initiative. Proceeds from the dinner will be used to create a fund that domestic violence survivors can access when they leave the network’s shelter to start jobs.
Alles, who has worked with Clinton on his global AIDS initiative, said she hopes to raise $1 million for the Mountain View shelter by the end of the year. She said 190 guests attended the dinner, and that another event is being planned for the fall.
Rita Ghatak, CEO of Stree, organized Sunday’s fund-raiser.
Stree’s mission is to bring health care and social change to women worldwide.
It has sponsored education and health programs in Africa, India and the United States.
