My job is humiliating but I can’t stop – 66-yr-old ‘shoe-maker’ cries

A Kumasi-based 66-year-old man, Kwaku Annor has run to Accra to escape mockery for being a ‘shoe-maker’ at his ripe age.

The father of seven said he has been toiling since his active years to make ends meet.

Without any formal education, the cobbler could only survive life being a ‘shoe-maker’.

“I never attended school because my parents could not afford my fees,” he said.

Mr. Annor said he started his life in Kumasi and later traveled to Nigeria with the help of a benevolent man.

“I continued with the shoe-maker job when I lived in Nigeria. I only came home when I have saved enough money,’ he said.

He said he finally returned to settle in Ghana to continue his job and to make a family. “I have five daughters and two sons,” he told crimecheckghana.org.

Unfortunately for him, though he managed to fund some of his children to finish University, they are unemployed and the marriages of four of his daughters have collapsed.

The only way he could endure hardship without the support of his children is to continue with the ‘shoe-maker’ business but he feels humiliated when he meets his friends and relatives while doing it in his hometown.

“My children have told me to quit the job but there is no other way to escape hardship so I have come to Accra to do it. At least most of my friends and relatives are not here,” he said.

Mr. Annor narrated his predicament to Crime Check Foundation (CCF).

The Foundation supported him with Ghc 1,000 for him to start a new business with the contribution of a UK-based group, Church of Christ.