Balai Pendidikan Masjarakat Desa, B.P.M.D. (Village Community Education Centre), 1952 US poster: A poster of ten illustrated

Balai Pendidikan Masjarakat Desa, B.P.M.D. (Village Community Education Centre) (Indonesian poster distributed in Indonesia)

A poster of ten illustrated panels with arrows pointing to a central village building labelled as the Village Community Education Centre (B.P.M.D.). The panels show farm training, a village meeting, a farmers' course, a reading garden with a newspaper, fruit-seedling nurseries, inoculation and medicine, literacy classes, a conference, an exhibition and a field demonstration. The tell is plain-folks: village life shown as a set of beneficial activities gathered in one local centre.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Plain folks Glittering generalities

Date: January 9, 1952
Period: Cold War
Made by: U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department IIE program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series; imprint of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture and the U.S. ECA mission
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Truman Administration
Leader: Harry S. Truman
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Warn or inform
Themes: Economy and finance, Science and technology
Event: Cold War
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, January 9, 1952. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5729976, 306-PPA-76).

Text on the object

Original (Indonesian) · read from the image, not independently checked

LATIHAN TANI
RAPAT DESA
KURSUS TANI
TAMAN PEMBATJAAN
PEMBIBITAN BUAH²AN
BALAI PENDIDIKAN MASJARAKAT DESA
B.P.M.D.
EXPOSISI
SUNTIKAN dan TJATJARAN
PEMBERANTASAN BUTA HURUF
KONPERENSI
DEMONSTRASI
MADJALAH TEPAT
ABC 123
DARI
KEMENTERIAN PERTANIAN
DAN ECA MISSIE CHUSUSTEKNIK DAN EKONOMIE

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

FARMER TRAINING
VILLAGE MEETING
FARMERS' COURSE
READING GARDEN
FRUIT SEEDLING NURSERY
VILLAGE COMMUNITY EDUCATION CENTRE
B.P.M.D.
EXHIBITION
INJECTION AND MEDICINE [the printed word 'tjatjaran' is read here as 'tjatjaran' ('vaccination/smallpox inoculation' sense uncertain)]
ELIMINATING ILLITERACY
CONFERENCE
DEMONSTRATION
MADJALAH TEPAT [newspaper masthead]
ABC 123
FROM
THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE
AND THE ECA SPECIAL TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC MISSION

Captions are listed in reading order across the panels; 'tjatjaran' is read from the image and its translation is uncertain.