The first Pacific Youth Festival gets underway in Tahiti today.
The event is organised by the French Polynesian Government and a local NGO, the Polynesian Union for Youth.
It has additional backing from the Oceania branch of FIFA, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and UNESCO.
Sara Vui-Talitu reports from Papeete.
"The event has attracted 1400 young people between the ages of 16 and 30 from all over the Pacific. Over the next 6 days these young people, who are seen as future leaders, will share ideas on a variety of topics such as health, education, cultural diversity, peace and good governance. The organisers hope to have enough material by the end of the week to draft a Pacific Youth Charter that will be tabled at the 2007 World youth Festival in Mexico."
