Our Founders

Kanchan Rawat is the Founder and President of Hashtag Believer Foundation, leading the organization's vision of building people-driven, sustainable community development across rural India.

Born and raised in a traditional Garhwali middle-class joint family, she was introduced to the values of compassion, responsibility and community service from an early age. Her father migrated from a remote village in Uttarakhand to Delhi in search of livelihood, and despite the family's own challenges, their home remained a place of support for students, patients and families arriving from the hills in search of education, employment and medical care. These experiences shaped her belief that social responsibility begins with ordinary people helping one another.

She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Arts from the University of Delhi and later pursued postgraduate studies in Sociology before choosing to gain practical understanding through grassroots work. She volunteered with several non-profit organizations across Delhi NCR while building professional experience in the corporate sector, believing that meaningful development is best understood through direct engagement with communities.

In 2018, extensive field visits across Uttarakhand led her to a defining realization: every community possesses talent, resilience and leadership, but often lacks opportunities, collaboration and access. This insight became the foundation of her development philosophy.

Under her leadership, Hashtag Believer Foundation was established as a people-powered movement dedicated to youth leadership, skill development, women's empowerment, entrepreneurship, rural innovation and community participation.

Kanchan believes that sustainable change cannot be imposed from outside. It is created when communities take ownership of their own future. This belief continues to guide every initiative of the Foundation through its enduring philosophy:

Every movement requires systems that transform vision into sustainable action. Vaibhav Mittal has played that role since the Foundation's earliest days. A childhood friend who gradually became family, he has been a trusted companion throughout the journey of building Hashtag Believer Foundation. Holding a Master's degree in Computer Applications (MCA), Vaibhav combines technology, entrepreneurship and education to create practical solutions for social development.

His professional experience spans digital education, entrepreneurship and the real estate sector, giving him a unique understanding of how innovation can generate opportunities for communities traditionally left behind. He believes the greatest inequality today is not merely economic. It is the unequal access to knowledge, technology and professional networks.

His vision is to bridge that divide by connecting experienced professionals, entrepreneurs, educators and industry leaders with rural youth, ensuring that geography never determines the limits of aspiration. Within the Foundation, he leads the development of systems, partnerships and technology-driven initiatives that transform ideas into scalable community programmes.

His belief is simple.

When knowledge travels, opportunity follows.

Development becomes meaningful only when it includes women not as beneficiaries, but as leaders. Kamini Mittal has dedicated her journey to proving exactly that. A graduate of the University of Delhi, she brings more than a decade of professional experience in sales leadership before expanding her work into digital education and community development.

As a working professional, a mother and a leader, she understands the realities faced by women balancing ambition with responsibility. Her own life reflects a conviction that financial independence is not merely an economic achievement—it is the foundation of confidence, dignity and decision-making.

She envisions an Uttarakhand where girls & women are recognised not only for preserving families and traditions but also for building enterprises, leading institutions and creating local economies.

Beyond her formal responsibilities within the Foundation, Kamini has consistently supported community initiatives through her personal commitment, mentorship and financial contributions. Programmes such as Rasoi Pahadi reflect her belief that culture, entrepreneurship and women's leadership can together create sustainable livelihoods.

Her mission is to ensure that every girl grows up believing that education creates possibilities, skills create independence, and entrepreneurship creates freedom.