Brazilian municipality adopts Ukrainian as its second official language

The proposal by Mallet Mayor Sergio Hryczak, Prof. Kelly, and Counselor Schumacher to make Ukrainian the municipality’s second official language was approved on June 13, 2022.

Municchio de Mallet, where Ukrainians account for 60% of its 14,000 population, has become the State of Paraná’s second municipality to set up Ukrainian as one of its official languages – after Prudentopolis, which did the same in October 2021 for the first time in Brazil.

Ukrainian colonization groups, one of the earliest in Brazil, settled in the municipality of Mallet in 1891. The Holy Archangel Michael Wooden Church, built by Ukrainian immigrants between 1897 and 1903, still stands in the municipality.