What a grandmother knits is especially warm...
BEBIAS is a Georgian brand and social enterprise offering hats and other accessories hand-knitted by grandmothers.
BEBIAS was founded on September 7, 2018. Its story goes back to the loving bond between the founder, Giorgi Nozadze, and his grandmother. The idea came when Giorgi lost a hat his grandmother had knitted for him. Because of her age, she could no longer knit a new one, and she passed away soon after. “That was when I realized how warm my grandmother’s hat had been, and that there are many grandmothers who would gladly knit cozy hats for the younger generation and knit their warmth and love into them. In return, they would earn an income doing what they love, without leaving home.”
That is how the idea for a new product was born: one that would give grandmothers an income and give people the chance to stay warm in hats knitted by caring grandmothers’ hands. Since there was no Georgian brand of quality knitted hats on the market, we decided to create a company that would employ the grandmothers who most need to be part of society. Later BEBIAS grew its range of knitted accessories, and now, besides hats, our grannies knit cozy socks, gloves and scarves.
Our mission
Our mission is to give grandmothers a dignified old age. Our everyday work serves one main goal: to give grandmothers back the feeling that their work still matters a great deal to society. In this way we want to bring as many older women in Georgia as possible back to an active life and give them an income.
On the one hand, we let grandmothers who stay at home live actively and earn an income from the handcraft they love. On the other, we create warm products of high quality.
We believe a brand should not be just a system that delivers a product or a service to the customer. It should create real value. We connect grandmothers with the rest of society, and it is fitting that this connection brings with it the warmest of products.
What problems do we work to solve?
Grandmothers’ economic hardship
Today older people in Georgia are one of the most forgotten and least valued generations. They are not seen as equal members of society who can make an important contribution to the country’s social and economic development. The state gives them minimal support, which is not enough to live out old age with dignity. According to the National Statistics Office, 16% of Georgia’s population is over 65, and 596 thousand women receive a pension. Most grandmothers are unemployed and have already borrowed against their pension to cover health costs.
Along with economic hardship, growing older is closely linked to depression in older people. A lack of social contact, losing the sense of being important and needed, and less physical and mental activity all contribute to both mental and physical illness.
The grandmothers who work with us have new work, new joy and new energy. In a word, we make them smile and help them feel that they can still do valuable work for society. They are happy to be earning again, and not a meager income at that, from the handcraft they love rather than from hard labor.
Pollution
Pollution of the environment with microfibers and microplastics is one of the major problems of the 21st century. Many studies confirm that seas and oceans are full of both macro- and microplastics, which in turn threaten marine life and the whole ecosystem. Synthetic, unnatural clothing is a major source of microplastics. Washing a 5 kg load of laundry releases on average 10 to 12 million microfibers. Studies confirm that more than 60% of the fabrics used in clothing worldwide are synthetic, which makes them, after petroleum products, the largest source of pollution for the environment.
Wearing clothing and textiles made of natural fabrics can reduce the microfibers released in the wash. Natural fabric is good both for the environment and for human health.
With this in mind, our hats are knitted from 100% natural Tushetian wool made especially for our enterprise, most of it colored with natural dyes. And so the hats are not rough to wear, they have a soft lining of natural cotton knitted inside.
“We want to give grandmothers a dignified old age by making warm, handmade products.”
Giorgi Nozadze
Founder, Director
