Nurse Bosco and the baby in the bush

When it comes to kids, no two stories are ever the same. Some are quite extraordinary. Meet Agnes, Nurse Bosco and the baby in the bush

One morning in the southeast of South Sudan, Agnes* walked down to the nearby river to wash. There was no reason to think it was going to be anything but a normal day. 

When it was time to head back home, as Agnes walked along the riverbank and through the dense bush, she heard something moving. 

Then, she thought, she heard a baby’s cry. 

Without hesitation, she started searching through the leaves and the scrub … and there he was: a little baby boy, alone in the trees, desperately needing to be found. “I got scared,” say Agnes. “I stood there for one hour. There was no one else around, so I picked up the baby.”

Agnes took the boy to the police station in the hope they would be able to find his mother. Maybe he had been reported missing? Was someone looking for him? While the police searched, Agnes was asked to look after the baby who had been found in the bush. 

One thing was clear, the child was not well. Less than a month old, he was dehydrated and tired. Malnourished and fighting infection. With nobody else to look after him, Agnes took him to hospital where she was referred to a nearby stabilisation centre supported by Save the Children. 

At the centre, there to treat children suffering from malnutrition, Agnes met Nurse Bosco. The baby boy suddenly in her care had already been through a lot in his little life, but he was in safe hands now.

Nurse Bosco gave him therapeutic milk to build his strength, and medicine for the infection. Slowly, he began to build his strength. Each day, he got a little better. 

Meanwhile, the search for the boy’s family had drawn a blank. Nobody knew who had left him in the bush, nobody knew what had happened to his mother. So, when he was strong enough to leave the stabilisation centre, Agnes took him home to join her family – and was happy as she saw the little boy’s strength starting to return.  

“Nurse Bosco is an angel to the whole community and even the country,” says Agnes. 

It’s is not easy being a nurse in South Sudan. Years of conflict in the country have forced millions from their homes and fractured communities. In this turbulent situation, it’s not always easy for Bosco to do his job. 

But, he keeps going, working seven days a week at the centre to bring healthcare to hundreds of families.

“I chose this job to save life,” he says. “I look around at the situation in our country, we have really no medical personnel so many people are dying because of little help, no nurses so I want to help the community, help this country to fight any other approachable disease which I know in my capacity and my level as a nurse.”

When you support Save the Children, you’re supporting people like Bosco and helping them save the lives of children like the little boy who was all alone the morning Agnes was walking along the riverbank – the ‘angel child’ she found in the bush, as she describes him.

Nurse Bosco smiles when he talks about why he does his work – it’s because, he says, he knows he can “save the children!”