GRACE St. JUDE​

The idea behind GRACE St. JUDE was birthed as far back as 2010 against the backdrop of incidents of intimate partner murders of immigrant African women in various parts of the United States. Although the population of immigrant Africans in the United States has been on a steady increase, this group of immigrants is marginalized in domestic violence research, and in policy and practice efforts to end domestic violence against women. 

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According to Pew Research Center, the immigrant African population increased from 80,000 in 1970 to 2.1 million in 2015, with the largest populations originating from sub-Saharan African countries, notably Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Somalia. A report by Migration Policy Institute shows that for the period 2010–2018, sub-Saharan immigrant Africans recorded a population growth of 52%, which was a sharp contrast to the 12% growth rate recorded in the same period for the entire foreign-born immigrant African population in the United States.

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While the voices of immigrant African victims or survivors of domestic abuse are hardly heard in the United States, the domestic abuse of women in Africa is known to be pervasive.