12/03/2025

چیرۆکی کوردێکی ڕۆژئاوا

I am (Ahmed Kro), from the Kurdish city of (Kobani) in Syria. I am 55 years old and from the time I reached adulthood until this moment, I’ve been working in shoe repair. We were poor, and there was no other profession for me to learn.

In the past, the profession of shoe repair (cobbling) had a good profit, because people, instead of buying new shoes, would repair their old ones. But today it’s the opposite, people buy new shoes instead of repairing their worn and old ones; besides, most of today’s shoes are made of plastic, cardboard, and ordinary materials, so they cannot be repaired, which is contrary to the past, when shoes were made of leather and authentic materials and even if they got damaged, they could be repaired several more times.

Since there is no electricity now or it has been reduced, I cannot use sewing machines to repair shoes. This has caused me to repair only three to four pairs of shoes daily, a very low number compared to previous years. From morning till evening, my days pass like this under this exhausting ceiling.

Currently, I live with my wife and son. My son wants to learn the same profession, but I advised him to study or learn another profession, which was of no use.