Looks very good to me.

It loads quickly in FireFlox and Exploder over DSL .... no errors, good photos and graphics, coherent menu system and for a very good cause. I'd say you nailed it.

Jazzlamb, your site is very well designed and
easy to "flow"
Congrats !

+ Simple, easy to navigate.
- Every page is too big for the screen; the user has to scroll *and* click. How about compress the top 2 areas so that the viewer just has to click?

I hate big motion video on a home page, but that's obviously a client demand. It's much better than a flash video intro with no page layout. It's good that you introduce the user to the layout and menus as soon as they arrive.

Try better padding on the H2's and consider adding a subtle background texture or gradient to those boxes. (maybe the yellow grass)

The outlines on the "sausage" images, and all boxes will look better with a 2-pixel border in a lighter color. A single pixel is hard to make round and smooth. Or use the "crumbly" border from the video on all of your borders.

On the sausage buttons, try separating the menu buttons from the stock images. Make it feel like the images are content instead of an oversized menu. This is a word-wide concern and you need to be a little more conventional (boring) with your menu interface. Try some teaser text along with the buttons and stock photos for those topics which lead the user deeper into the site. [our vision, our hope, our future, etc ] ex:
--- OUR VISION [STOCK IMAGE]
--- Our Vision is to support community health initiatives that are driven by the people of Malawi—for the people... (CLICK FOR MORE)

Use an image-replacement method on the buttons so that the text of the button is accessible. My favorite is the Dwyer Method reviewed on this page www.mezzoblue.com/tests/rev...placement/

Make the H1 (and entire header area) click back to the home page. Consider choosing a color image for the header area or adding orange tone to it. Move the top menu into the header so you aren't wasting vertical real-estate on an extra bar or ornamental background. [Home, aboutus, ourvision...]

Give some texture to the body background as well.

In the footer: shrink the affiliation icons a bit; better spacing. If you're using good CSS in all of your menus, you don't need to repeat the main menu in text form at the bottom. The dotted border is an anomaly. Make it match the other borders.

Put the mailing list form higher on the page; maybe top right.

Though it's a sober topic, the grey elements feel kind of flat, and they don't "feel like africa" so you could use sandy beige or red-ochre instead. Consider a subtle parchment-like edge on the white areas which fades to pure white for readability of P text.

Make sure the body text (P) is the same throughout the site (either serif or sans-serif; pick one and stick with it). This can be defined as a default for P or for BODY.

Hope that's helpful instead of bitchy.