ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the broader picture of livelihood and leisure, and explores the formal and non-formal institutions in Eroke. Trading plays a major role in Eroke, with both males and females ranking it highly as a source of income. Health care, food and school fees respectively constitute the three major items of expenditure as agreed by males and females. Imported cloth reduced the workload of women though it destroyed the indigenous industry. Credit in kind is normally in the form of crop or tree produce which women market and repay the lender with interest. Women have always played a prominent role in the Eroke Farmer Councils. The Diocesan Development Services saving/loan scheme initiated in Eroke in 1974 is a saga yielding insights and experience that led to a revamping of the system on which all its programmes were established. The inhabitants of Eroke take pride in their history of self-reliance.
