When electricity regularly fails for hours or even days and weeks at a time at the Tenderfeet School in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, it leads to far-reaching problems: In addition to the health consequences of using kerosene lamps, the lack of lighting at night leads to less safety for the children who spend the night there.

The winner of the Enspire Award 2017, the association JUAMII e.V., is committed to a sustainable and innovative energy supply in East Africa. In doing so, JUAMII e.V. particularly wants to support schools that receive no government funding and are located in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. The Tenderfeet School is located in Kibera, one of the world's largest slums in Kenya's capital Nairobi. Most of the children taught there are between the ages of 2 and 14.

The winning project of the Enspire Award is the impetus for a series of developments for the Tenderfeet School. The goal of the JUAMII e.V. association is to use the 3.3 kilowatt peak solar system on the school's roof to cover the school's entire own electricity needs. Even after sunset, the energy supply is ensured by a battery storage. The constant power supply also enables the provision of clean drinking water for the children and teachers through the operation of a solar water pump. The savings in energy costs will allow the school to become even more self-sufficient in the future by investing in its own agricultural concept. The solar plant is scheduled to be implemented in 2018.

200 students are taught at the Tenderfeet School. 21 orphans also spend the night at the school. The school is financed 100 percent by private donations and has 17 teachers who do not receive a fixed salary. The school's director cites power outages, insufficient clean water and too little arable land to grow food as the biggest challenges.

The Enspire Award promotes projects that advance the expansion of renewable energies in emerging and developing countries. Enspire Energie, the green electricity brand of Stadtwerke Konstanz, has been awarded the Grüner Strom-Label. The winning project will be promoted as part of the Green Electricity certification. The Green Electricity seal of approval requires energy suppliers to invest a fixed subsidy amount per kilowatt hour in energy transition projects.