She is co-founder of the international movement Faith and Light; with Jean Vanier, she has dedicated her life’s work to people with disabilities and to their families and friends.
Through her testimonies, Marie-Hélène Mathieu continues to be involved in the lives of these support structures that she has created, in order to ensure that the person with a disability, irrespective of the severity, finds their unique, rightful place in society.
She would become an advisor and friend to Mathieu, and her support was invaluable in the birth of the Office chrétien des personnes handicapées (OCH, "Christian Foundation for Disabled People").
In 1968, alongside the lectures and meetings, Marie-Hélène Mathieu created Ombres et Lumière (Shadows and Light), the OCH magazine aimed at people with disabilities, their families and friends.
In addition to OCH and Faith and Light, Mathieu was involved in creating the Simon de Cyrène Foundation for people who have suffered a severe head injury.
In the same spirit, the Pierre-François Jamet working and communion group, which she launched with Xavier Le Pichon , enables around thirty small communities to meet, and supports them in their care for people suffering from psychological distress.
Immediately afterwards, I was driven to create Office chrétien des personnes handicapées so it could come to the aid of families, and I did this with the spiritual support of Marthe Robin.