Slovenia’s largest newspaper has named as its person of the year for 2015 a gay dentist who works with refugees. Delo honored Jure Poglajen during a ceremony in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. President Borut Pahor and the newspaper’s publisher were among those who attended the event.
Poglajen and his partner of more than four years have spent weeks providing food, water and clothing to the hundreds of refugees from Syria, Iraq and other countries who were crossing the narrow Mytilini Strait from Turkey to Lesbos.

Poglajen and his partner returned to Lesbos last fall with Adra Slovenia, a Protestant relief group that is raising funds to assist refugees who continue to flood into Europe. The two men also offered assistance to those who entered Slovenia from Croatia after Hungary closed its border with Serbia.