As president and CEO of iPoint Capital Partners, Hilt Tatum IV directs private equity and venture capital investments for a firm with an international presence extending across Europe, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Also concerned for the welfare of vulnerable young people throughout the world, Hilt Tatum IV supports the work of the nonprofit organization Save the Children. As many as 90,000 children escaping violence in Central America and Mexico are estimated to cross the U.S. border in 2014 and, for those detained in overwhelmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities, the donations of Hilt Tatum and other contributors help Save the Children provide medical care, nutritious meals, emotional support, and structured play for these displaced children.

Because these children have endured a long journey through harsh conditions, many of them are in need of urgent nutritional and medical care to treat dehydration, diarrhea, and other illnesses. Save the Children is acquiring oral rehydration drinks and medicine to address the crisis, as well as recruiting pediatricians qualified to evaluate and treat youth detained in immigration control centers. 

Those with distressed garments receive new clothes from Save the Children, and the organization has implemented its Child-Friendly Spaces program within CBP holding facilities. Child-Friendly Spaces help children recovering from a crisis to cope by creating a protected area where they can play and socialize with peers under the supervision of a trained caregiver.

To further guarantee that the needs of these children are not neglected and that conditions at detainment centers are quickly improved, Save the Children’s senior director for U.S. emergencies is advising the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on measures to be taken. At the sites where children are first processed, Save the Children has proposed the assignment of monitors trained in child protection. Additionally, Save the Children is seeking authorization to train FEMA and CBP staff in child protection and establish its Journey of Hope emotional support program at holding facilities.

A co-founder of the Panama City, Panama, private equity, venture capital, and asset management firm iPoint Capital Partners, Hilt Tatum IV serves the investment group as president and CEO. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Hilt Tatum IV supports nonprofit aid organizations that provide relief to those in need in Panama and other countries in the region. Thanks to the generous contributions of donors like Hilt Tatum, the American Red Cross is able to assist those in Panama and other Latin American and Caribbean nations through disaster risk-reduction projects and the Resilience in the Americas (RITA) program.

Working with local Red Cross affiliates in Panama, Colombia, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and El Salvador, the American Red Cross began Latin America-based disaster risk-reduction initiatives in 2011 to safeguard local communities that are inadequately equipped to contend with natural disasters that regularly strike the region. With the goal of impacting more than 176,300 people in at-risk areas throughout the six countries, the American Red Cross has developed community-based education programs and has trained local Red Cross staff and volunteers to teach residents disaster-preparedness best practices, including earthquake survival methods, basic first-aid, and the importance of keeping an emergency response kit in the home. The American Red Cross has also supported infrastructural improvements, such as the installation of public address or very high frequency radio systems that can save lives by alerting citizens of an imminent disaster, allowing them to evacuate before it arrives.

RITA is a pilot program launched by the American Red Cross in 10 Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Panama, Guyana, Belize, the Bahamas, and Nicaragua. It is intended to benefit 3,500 people and enhance the resilience of 126 communities across these nations through a risk assessment process wherein community members themselves will identify locally available means they can develop to address pressing needs and secure against vulnerabilities. From the results of this pilot, the American Red Cross and local affiliates hope to develop tools and training manuals to model community resilience programs that can be applied in other areas of the world.

Holding a postgraduate degree in global business from the University of Oxford, Hilt Tatum IV serves as president of iPoint Capital Partners, a global asset management and investment firm. In this role, he identifies promising investment opportunities in addition to serving on the board for a number of iPoint’s portfolio companies. A philanthropic individual, Hilt Tatum IV also supports a number of charitable organizations, including Save the Children.

Benefiting underprivileged youth in 120 countries, Save the Children sponsors several campaigns to aid social initiatives such as public health, disaster relief, and education. One such campaign is HEART, or Healing and Education Through the Arts. HEART introduces disadvantaged children around the world to the creative arts, using painting, poetry, theatre, music, and more to foster emotional healing and development. The program works with children who have experienced trauma such as extreme poverty, the loss of a loved one, a natural disaster, or violent conflict. By introducing boys and girls from the ages of three to 14 to the possibility of creative expression, HEART allows them to share their personal experiences in a therapeutic manner. 

Save the Children develops a unique HEART curriculum to best serve each child and community, passing the knowledge along to those who teach and care for children. Since its establishment, the program has reached more than 10,000 kids, with a goal of to reach 50,000 by 2015.