Democracy in Action with Betzavta

Mellem Education is an organisation that provides educational experiences in the form of trainings and workshops, meant to challenge the individual on their role in a group decision-making process. From Human Rights trainings in schools to communication and professional development trainings at workplaces, Mellem Education’s goal is for each person to recognize and experience every individual’s equal right to freedom. By reflecting on our responsibility in this process, we continuously challenge the system in which we function and work towards building a better society from the bottom up.

Mellem offers a variety of strategies including the Betzavta methodology, which uses the dynamics of the group to shape the content of the workshop. Topics covered include democratic decision-making, minorities/majorities, conflict over limited resources, intercultural communication. Activities are engaging and interactive with a reflection session following each activity to reflect and learn from each other’s behavior.

The educational methodology developed at Mellem is participant-driven, in that the hierarchical nature of traditional teaching is dissolved. Participants create and construct their own learning, thereby gaining a fundamental and in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. Mellem’s workshops have a theoretical component but are not in themselves theoretical. They allow the participant to fully engage in the process, linking the personal with the political, the practice with the theory.