The precise origins of Nicaragua Exchange are uncertain, although it is known that on November 10, 1983, Nicaragua issued an international emergency call for assistance with its coffee harvest. In the United States the National Network in Solidarity With the Nicaraguan People (NNSNP, later known as the Nicaragua Network), a national organization of sixty local committees opposed to intervention in Central America, undertook the organization of these volunteer brigades. To better utilize the experiences of the returning volunteers (brigadistas) within the movement that opposed the official U.S. policy in Nicaragua, in February 1984 NNSNP began working activists in New York City to publish the Brigadista Bulletin. The editors of this newsletter were Corinne Rafferty and Sara Miles. During 1984 Rafferty and Miles also assumed responsibility for coordinating NNSNP's short-term harvest brigade program, which with support from the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), eventually emerged by September 1984 as an independent, non-profit organization, Nicaragua Exchange, Inc.
Staffed from New York City, chiefly by Rafferty and Miles, Nicaragua Exchange worked with many independent groups around the country who, in turn, served as the local area organizers for the harvest brigades. They also cooperated with the Comite Nicaraguenes de Solidaridad con los Pueblos (CNSP) in Managua which provided orientation and support while the volunteers were in Nicaragua. Nicaragua Exchange also provided leaders and health workers for each contingent of volunteers. During its first year Nicaragua Exchange sent 400 volunteers to Nicaragua. Nicaragua Exchange differed from other organizations that sent volunteers to Nicaragua in that its brigades were exclusively agricultural rather than technical and they were short in duration (generally two weeks to a month in length). Nicaragua Exchange also stressed continued activism among returned volunteers, and it worked to publicize the volunteers' experiences to a wide audience.
Funding for Nicaragua Exchange came from volunteers and from IFCO and private foundations such as the Stern Fund and the Funding Exchange.
Nicaragua Exchange dissolved in June 1987. It cited as reasons for the termination its ongoing financial problems, but also the fact that other organizations were sponsoring brigades and that specialized volunteers rather than harvest workers had become of highest priority to Nicaragua.
