ATTLEBORO -- For Jose Acevedo, coming to America meant more than a chance at a better life.

It meant life itself.

Acevedo fled El Salvador in the mid-1980s when he could no longer see a future in a country where incessant guerrilla warfare left an ever-present trail of destruction and bodies in vil lage streets.

`` I don't know what might have hap pened if I hadn't come,'' said Acevedo, an admissions official and trou bleshooter at Boston Eye and Ear Infir mary in Boston. `` I might be dead now.''

Acevedo grew up in the small town of San Esteban Caterine, where he played soccer and worked on a farm. Violence was as up-close and personal as finding the body of a fellow vil lager who had walked into a crossfire between government and rebel troops. `` Once I was riding a bus, and the guerrillas stopped us and made us all get out,'' said Acevedo, who along with other terrified passengers was not reassured by the rebels' promises they would not be hurt. They set fire to the bus.

Acevedo's own father, who worked at a local hospital, was the victim of a political execution.

They shot him nine times.

After his father's death, the 16-year-old boy worked on a farm to support his five brothers and sisters. But after a few years it became evident that Los Estados Unidos was the only place that held any promise for Acevedo and his young girlfriend.

He got a job at first doing menial work at a Boston hospital, learning English and taking classes at night. Five years later, he became an U.S. citizen.

These days Acevedo has no doubts that he made the right choice. Although he spends 14 hours or more away from home each day, Acevedo has a good job and his wife owns a small wedding boutique in Cambridge.

The Acevedos and their two children live in a comfortable duplex they bought four years ago on Orange Street.

They're also active in St. Joseph's Church.

But Acevedo hasn't forgotten his home country, finally at peace but still impoverished after years of armed struggle.

He and a handful of friends established a non-profit charity to help provide medical supplies and equipment for the people of his hometown. Acevedo decided he had to take action after finding access to medicine and basic equipment like wheelchairs difficult during a 1995 visit back home. `` While I was there, a woman who needed treatment was trying to get to the hospital only a few miles away,'' he said. `` But there was no transportation available.''

Acevedo put her in a cab, but he came away with a determination that something had to be done. He founded the Committee Estebano Pro Health, a non-profit corporation that collects donations of medicines, wheelchairs, walkers and other necessities to send to El Salvador's needy.

The supplies are dispatched whenever the Attleboro resident can get a deal from a sympathetic trucker.

A current priority for Acevedo and his group is finding a used ambulance to send to St. Esteban. Information about how to donate cash or medical supplies is available by calling a special telephone number, 508-431-9222.

Meanwhile, Acevedo and his family are living a life they could scarcely have imagined in their war-torn homeland.

`` This is a great country,'' Acevedo said. `` I've made it here.''