Shaka Services like most health agencies had grown very concerned about the rapid increase in the rate of STI's (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and unplanned teenage pregnancies within the South London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham.

Shaka's Youth Group wanted to do something to raise awareness about this amongst their peers. They said that young people had received the usual 'talk' at school about sex but it did not really have any effect on them t so they came up with the idea of 'Burning Sensations'.

One of the young people takes up the story:

We organised a Concert Type event for young people 14 -20 involving singing, dancing, acting, rapping/MC's, fun competitions and food. We even wrote and performed a short play looking at the key issues regarding safe sex - is it OK to have more than one sexual partner? what do you do if you think you've caught something? How do you know if you have caught something? What is HIV/AIDS and can it really affect us when we are so young?

We were allowed to organise the whole thing although the staff at Shaka supported us. We held auditions and lots of young people came. On the night the young people were in charge of the whole event doing the compeering, playing the music and all the performers did well. Over 250 attended and we had to shut the door to many others as it was full. During the evening we had talks around sexual health issues and relationships, there were quizzes and prizes and it was a great success.